Café racer

Genre of sporting motorcycle

A café racer is a genre of sport motorcycles that originated among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s in London. Café racers were standard production bikes that were modified by their owners and optimized for speed and handling for quick rides over short distances. Café racers have since become popular around the world, and some manufacturers produce factory made models that are available in the showrooms. Noted for its visual minimalism, a 1960s café racer would typically be an English parallel twin motorcycle with low mounted clip on or "Ace" handlebars with rear set footrests. Items considered "non essential" such as side panels, rear chain enclosures, and voluminous mudguards (fenders) were replaced by lighter items, or dispensed with altogether. In post war Britain, car ownership was still uncommon, but as rationing and austerity diminished, by the late 1950s young people could for the first time afford a motorcycle. Previously, motorcycles (often with voluminous sidecars) provided family transport, but the growing economy enabled such families to afford a car and dispense with a motorcycle at last. Young people were eager to buy such cast off motorcycles and modify them into café racers, which for them represented speed, status, and rebellion, rather than mere inability to afford a car. The café racer idea caught on in the US, which was already a major market for British motorcycles. In 2014, journalist Ben Stewart recognised the café racer as a European style that would be appreciated in America. Writing in 1973, Wallace Wyss claimed that the term "café racer" was originally used in Europe to describe a "motorcyclist who played at being an Isle of Man road racer".

"Rockers" were a young and rebellious rock and roll subculture who wanted to escape the convention of mainstream 1950s UK culture. Owning a fast, personalised, and distinctive café racer gave them status and allowed them to ride between transport cafés in and around towns and cities. Biker lore has it that one goal was to reach "the ton", , along a route where the rider would leave from a café, race to a predetermined point, and return to the café before a single song could play on the jukebox, called record racing. However, author Mike Seate contends that record racing is a myth, the story having originated in an episode of the BBC Dixon of Dock Green television show. Café racers are remembered as being especially fond of rockabilly music and their image is now embedded in today's rockabilly culture. The café racer subculture has created a separate look and identity with modern café racers taking style elements from American greasers, British rockers, 70s bikers, and modern motorcycle riders to create a global style of their own.

Café racer riders would often lighten their bikes, and tune their engine, typically fitting "clip ons" (or dropped handlebars) and rear set footrests, Occasionally, café racers might be fitted with half or even full race style fairings. As owners became more experimental, they would fit engines in different frames. A typical example was the "Triton", a homemade combination of a Triumph Bonneville engine in a Norton Featherbed frame. and the Harley Davidson XLCR. The Japanese domestic market started making cafe racer replicas in the early 1980s, first Honda with the GB250 in 1983, then GB400 and GB500 versions in 1985. The GB400TTMKII has a frame mounted fairing and single seat with cowl. The Honda GB500 TT, sought to emulate BSA and Norton café racers of the 1960s. Markets outside got the XBR500 in 1985, with more angular modern styling to compete with the Yamaha SRX600, until Honda USA released a version of the GB500 in 1989. In the mid 1970s, riders continued to modify standard production motorcycles into so called "café racers" by equipping them with clubman bars and a small fairing around the headlight. A number of European manufacturers, including Benelli, BMW, Bultaco, and Derbi produced factory "café" variants of their standard motorcycles in this manner, without any modifications made to make them faster or more powerful, a trend that continues today. Although many riders of four strokes associate cafe racers with four stroke motors and British marques, and with an era prior to the onslaught of mostly Japanese two strokes, owners of two stroke standard motorcycles have also been as enthusiastic at modifying their motorcycles into cafe racers, although the riders are less likely to ape 1950s clothing and hair fashions. During the course of the 1980s, manufacturers mostly phased out two stroke standard motorcycles, replacing them with race replicas. Many obsolete standard designs continued to be manufactured or distributed from remaining stocks, especially in less wealthy countries. 1970s Yamaha and Honda designs, by example, were distributed or manufactured in India and elsewhere through partnerships with Indian manufacturers such as Escorts (partnered with Yamaha) and Hero Cycles (Hero Honda). Owners of these machines in countries where they are still available, such as India, Malaysia, and the Philippines have continued to modify these two stroke standard motorcycles into cafe racers. Manufacturers of newer two stroke designs also produce cafe racer inspired models, including the British 250cc Langen cafe racer announced in 2020.