Cafe Racer TV: Mike Seate - What is he talking about?

[J-Rod10]

I would somewhat enjoy that show if it weren't for his narrating.

As it stands, I do not watch it.

 

[BCBarker]

A show for hipsters with deep wallets and no tools. I'd rather be changing my sons diaper than featured for anything on that show. It's more about image than talent IMHO. If I could pay a machine shop to do all my hard work I'm sure I could make it in there!

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Waaaaiitt a minute... was that one of those hyperbole things again?! ???

Shit! You just made me spray vodka/tonic all over my computer screen!

 

[Redbird]

Thanks, I'll be here all weekend. Don't forget to tip your waitress

 

[NortonGuy]

Some people knew Seate was a douche many years ago:

Sorry guys but Seate is a WANKER.
Well to me he is and to many I know.

Obvioulsy it is up to you to make your own minds up and thats fair enough.

Looks like we shall have a nice punch up when we meet, although he had a Black eye at the New York show, I need to buy someone a drink.

I gave NO permission for me to be on the cover, look in the book, he does not mention me on the cover, he used al sorts of pics and got them all wrong on the info.
Sorry guys, I am generally a cool guy and love all motorcycles, but when a wanker tries to make out what he isnt, i am not happy and he is making MONEY off my images. simple as that guys.
The poor Photographer is now at the attornys too, as he got no recognition and is after 5 grand now.

He sent me a threatning letter saying I cant publish my mag, who the hell does he think he is.?


There are 100's of Motorcycle mags and hardly any cafe stuff so there is room for coffe books etc.
infact there is a boo out in germany right now.
called cafe racers I have seen it and gave permission to be in it.
Same as being in BSH this month with my Supercharged Cafe.

I will of course support any literature on cafe racers, especially on this forum. but not that other guy who is living off other peoples names. he has many with attorneys involved now.
Just be careful.
he warned me NOT to go to any shows if he has bikes there. he said if i went to NY i would not be welcome.
Weird, as I had my own booth there.
Hate to sound like a C*&t but this guy has really gone too far.

I am a MOTORCYCLE builder and was a Proffesional Motorcycle dispatch rider for over 25 years, I am not a pen pusher and never pretended to be, i am starting a magazine that will reflect all of us and involve ALL of you, Kudos to all in my opinion.


But get the Coffee book going, I am all up for that gang.
Peace and grease to you all.
CARPY

"Jap machines have no character or soul", Mike Seate in Iron Horse magazine #100 August 1991.

"Buying the Yamaha was about freedom" Mike Seate in Iron Works magazine Feb. 95'.

Mike Seate, Iron Works magazine, November 1996, about his Triton:" I DIDN'T HAVE IT BUILT to be reliable. It just had to look good enough and on occasion run good enough to massage my ego and show off my appreciation of cult history".
Hello,

I have been around motorcycles my whole life. In the late fifties and early sixties my father was a dealer/racer of British motorcycles. He had a great time riding and racing them and his small shop helped finance his bikes and fun. So when I learned to walk I was in his shop looking at and playing with bike parts and tools. We always had a mini-bike or some small motorcycle to ride through the woods as kids, and after high-school I immediately bought a Bultaco, then a series of old British bikes which at this time thirty years ago were $100 items if they needed work. I got a Norton for my first streetbike and never rode anything else except for the one summer I rode an xr750.

I of course always read bike magazines, and in the eighties I started buying Iron Horse magazine becasue it regularly featured British, antique and other special-interest motorcycles, it was a very open-minded and smart magazine. It's then-editor David Snow was a real human being, he was an artist and he was really smart. Throughout his stay with the magazine he took it from nothing to possibly being the best motorcycle magazine in North America. He was with IH for about ten years when he walked away leaving the magazine to fall into the hands of the greedy and trendy who quickly drove it into the ground, it was never the same again.

Mike Seate got his start in motorcycle journalism with Iron Horse during it's time at the top. Mike was introduced to the IH readership in issue #100 where he is quoted directly saying that "Jap machines have no character or soul", that's right, did you all here with "Jap" bikes get that?

Mike was never paid a dime by IH, he was not employed by them, he just hung out there and contributed a few sporadic, usually bad articles for it over a period of three years. Mostly his articles were not about motorcycles but the "scene", a rally and he even did a piece on a Presidential election. The reason Mike did not write about motorcycles that much was obvious to the Iron Horse readers, it was because he Did Not Know anything about them and did not have any real history with them other than using them as one more pop-cliche to slather on himself in an attempt to be some sort of cool.

Mike had a Sportster when he first appeared in Iron Horse, which he admitted and was often seen not running or breaking down as it was not around anyone who knew anything about working on it. Soon Mike picked up a Harley Shovelhead which also did not run worth a dime. the IH staff took this bike under their wing and had it completely re-done at no expense to Mike, even having the best Harley mechanic in N.Y.C. rebuild it's engine.

How did Mike repay his "friends" that got him up on two dependable wheels? He repaid them by shortly thereafter telling them he no longer wanted anything to do with them as after his bike was re-done he suddenly did not agree with the philosophical stance of the magazine any more. What was actually happening was that he was in the process of parlaying his "volunteer" work at Iron Horse magazine into a steady paying job at Iron Works magazine by LYING about his past, because at this time he claimed publicly on the Iron Works website to have "worked" at Iron Horse for eight years!

As soon as Seate started working for Iron Works, on the front of their magazine they started claiming they were "The Thinking Man's Harley Magazine". This is why they hired Seate who knew nothing about Harleys? Even more hysterically, Mike sold his Harley that the Iron Horse refurbished for him for a LOT more than he payed for it, then he bought a YAMAHA FJ1100, that's right one of those bikes with no character or soul, and proceeded to write a big article for Iron Works justifying why he could write articles about Harleys, be pictured sitting on a Harley at the top of his monthly column in an ALL Harley magazine, while owning and riding a Japanese bike.

A typical Mike Seate article was his review of a new Harley in Iron Works where he stated that he had "never rode an older Glide" when in fact his Harley which the IH staff had fixed for him was, a 73' Glide, Seate is not even aware of what he was riding!

Mike Seat said "Old bikes belong in museums and not on the road" because he had attempted to build a Triton and failed, again writing a feature on how it was not his lack of ability and knowledge that kept the Triton from being assemled and reliable, but it was simply because it was impossible to do this with an "old" bike.

So Mike went and pandered to Iron Horse when it profited and benefited him, then he went and lied to Iron Works about his past and parlayed it into a paying job, and on his way he would say anthing, lie and contradict himself and his actions whenever it would get him ahead.

The two quotes above are enough to make anyone wonder why Seate would enter the Cafe Bike scene, as it is currently rooted in not only OLD bikes, but Japanese products at that.

Well you certainly will not wonder why Mike Seate is here if you KNOW Mike Seate and have followed his antics over the years.

I love bikes and all people who enjoy motorcycling. Mike Seate is a horrible cancer to the world of motorcycling. The disinformation he has spouted in motorcycling periodicals and books, the contribution he has made into whoring the sport to pop hipsters, is damage that I can only hope will turn back and eat him alive someday.

Seate slathers himself with every pop-culture cliche, latches onto any part of life that is real and turns it into a whore-house, bleeding the life out of it for his own personal gain, destroying it, all the while looking for the next victim to walk by that he can bullshit into his web of mediocrity…..

And at this point he is looking at YOU.....

Post by Benjamin Gradler, Erie PA

 

[beachcomber]

I'm pretty sure unity gets their tanks made in India...

They might do that now [ Unity ] - I know of several suppliers that get their "English" alloy rims from China - including Borrani. No foul - they are excellent quality and probably 30% cheaper. I have a pair for my Vindicator Cafe Racer, and I cannot see any specific differences between them and the period ex. Ducati originals I have in my garage

Unity were supplying alloy tanks way before India or China were "discovered" as a source of cheap anything, let alone Cafe Racer parts and alloy tanks. Notice I said "supplying" ...............

Yes, it is a diminishing skill base, mainly because the demand all but died out from the 80's until the surge in interest 5 years or so ago.

People like Pete Kyte have been there all the time, but a lot of his work over the years has been supplying and replacing genuine factory stuff - especially museum parts for the major Japanese factories.

Sadly he retired a few years ago, just as I wanted that "special tank" for my Vindicator !

 

[1sttimer]

Inside Mr Seate's small dream world, that's probably true. either that, or Junior, Brad, and a few others I've met are all from india.

Haha awesome. I understand hyperbole but considering the audience of that show is mainly bike enthusiasts, one must be careful how far to stretch the truth. Many in the audience are bound to catch on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Flugtechnik]

Yes, I believe Mike was using hyperbole to make a point. We shouldn't take stuff so literally.

 

[bradj]

Im going to hell over these pictures but i cant look at one with out thinking about the other

 

[beachcomber]

Yes, I believe Mike was using hyperbole to make a point. We shouldn't take stuff so literally.

Hyperbole ????????????????????? is that another word for bullshit ?

 

[oldskool]

Lmao

 

[Tim]

Look either word up in the dictionary and you'll find a pic of Seate.

 

[RoadRash]

That was the exact quote that I was thinking of. He said that, and one eyebrow shot up. Does he even HEAR the things he says?

 

[pwrofdrm]

I would somewhat enjoy that show if it weren't for his narrating.

As it stands, I do not watch it.

Easy fix, whenever he comes on just press <mute> ;D

 

[bradj]

A eazy fix would be if some one pulled half his face up about a inch and throw a stitch or two in to hold it square. christ if i wanted to watch the goonies i would have played the vhs

 

[beachcomber]

well I think you're all being mighty aweful to the poor Mr. Seate ..............................................................................on second thoughts - no I don't

 

[farmerdl]

I hate to admit I read the thing, but I opened this months issue of Cafe Racer magazine and on page six, Mr. Seate writes under the heading Best Ignoring of Facts, "A tie between the famously navel-gazing British motorcycle press and U.S. industry mag Motorcycle Product News for conveniently ignoring the role of this magazine and Cafe Racer TV in helping to launch the global cafe racer trend. MPN ran a dubious cover feature in July, crediting the trend to a New Zealand internet site, no less."
Where in the hell to start. The cafe racer "trend" and I like to think it's more than a trend as "trends" are superficial and temporary. The movement, for lack of a better term goes way back prior to the internet as I'm sure all here know. And who in the hell does Mr. Seate think he is that he, or his rag, helped launch anything? Facts? The cafe racer movement surely wasn't launched by any magazine.
Anyone else care to jump in? I have to quit before my blood pressure goes up any further. I would suggest that we flood Mr. Seate's inbox with comments

DL

 

[Tim]

The New Zealand website he mentions without mentioning it is BikeEXIF.

Cafe Racer TV and Mike's magazine have had nothing to do with any resurgence in interest in old motorcycles. Neither has BikeEXIF, DO THE TON or any other website. No publication, broadcast or any other form of media is ever behind the resurgence of ANYTHING.

The idea that media influences trends in anything is nuts.

 

[ApriliaBill]

The New Zealand website he mentions without mentioning it is BikeEXIF.

Cafe Racer TV and Mike's magazine have had nothing to do with any resurgence in interest in old motorcycles. Neither has BikeEXIF, DO THE TON or any other website. No publication, broadcast or any other form of media is ever behind the resurgence of ANYTHING.

The idea that media influences trends in anything is nuts.

I think you underestimate the sheeple on this planet....

 

[BCBarker]

The idea that media influences trends in anything is nuts.

In my eyes the trend IS the magazine and the TV show fabricated by the likes of Seate.

The movement is made by people who wrench and ride. Once the trend dies, the movement will continue in some way... And Seate will be flipping burgers somewhere, hopefully!