Bikes that make the best cafes
- Thread starter twistekeys
- Start date
Swapmeet Louie
Put some metal in yer eye....
:0bradj said:
Wahoo650
Coast to Coast
I think your limiting yourself to preconcieved notions of what may or may not look good. Find the best bike for the money, with a motor you like and have at it. I doubt that very many of us ever really thought some of the shaft drive bikes like the Virago's would ever make good cafe's, but there are plenty of nice ones out there. Here's a shop building very nice Savages.
http://www.rycamotors.com/bikes/CS1/about/index.html
http://www.rycamotors.com/bikes/CS1/about/index.html
Bikes that make the best cafes - the one [ or more ] you're currently working on .......................... 8)
Swapmeet Louie
Put some metal in yer eye....
+10Walms said:Now you're going in the right direction... If you really enjoy being at the top of the food chain, consider a Kawi triple.
Beachcomber your dirty dog you... Thats what would make the best "special".
honestly though... there are so many cloodge together cruiser bikes w/ clubmans and some fuct seat. dont encourage the boy! lol
The bike you are asking about does not exist. It comes down to what do you want and what is available.
For a great Cafe bike, start with Triumph. Norton or Triton. They embody teh cafe racer spirit better than anything else. But they are not cheap or 4's.
Stylistically, 4's don't make great cafe racers because they tend to look fat where a cafe racer should look svelte. That's not to say it can't be done, but this is where it gets to what is your vision? Search the web and come up with a few that talk to you. Long breadbox tanks were great when engines didn't make much power and handling was not understood. Airtech and Glass from the Past (among others) make a variety of long tanks for many different bikes and in many cases they are close to the original styles. Others like Legendary or Benjis Cafe Racer also offer tanks.
For a great tank, think about a custom made alloy tank form ROC city or Asa Moyce at Bartel or John Williams at the Tanks Shop. For a Honds tank, talk to Pete Kyte in the UK. There are others. Budget 500 for a glass tank and 1200-1800 for an alloy tank.
If it must be a 4 look at what's available in your neck of the woods and scour the internet for pictures of modified versions of the bike to see what works and what hurdles there are.
On the other hand if you want to buy a bike, go to a catalog for parts, add paint and polish and flip it, I would suspect that not a lot of people are much interested in helping you to make money.
BTW, back in the day, we rarely cut frames and we "made it our own" by bolting on parts from Dunstall or Bil Chuck or Gus Khun or Reads. No one made their own tank or seat. We rebuilt our bikes with whatever parts we could afford and wanted. And we just kept riding and upgrading and riding and changing and riding.....Rinse and repeat. YMMV.
For a great Cafe bike, start with Triumph. Norton or Triton. They embody teh cafe racer spirit better than anything else. But they are not cheap or 4's.
Stylistically, 4's don't make great cafe racers because they tend to look fat where a cafe racer should look svelte. That's not to say it can't be done, but this is where it gets to what is your vision? Search the web and come up with a few that talk to you. Long breadbox tanks were great when engines didn't make much power and handling was not understood. Airtech and Glass from the Past (among others) make a variety of long tanks for many different bikes and in many cases they are close to the original styles. Others like Legendary or Benjis Cafe Racer also offer tanks.
For a great tank, think about a custom made alloy tank form ROC city or Asa Moyce at Bartel or John Williams at the Tanks Shop. For a Honds tank, talk to Pete Kyte in the UK. There are others. Budget 500 for a glass tank and 1200-1800 for an alloy tank.
If it must be a 4 look at what's available in your neck of the woods and scour the internet for pictures of modified versions of the bike to see what works and what hurdles there are.
On the other hand if you want to buy a bike, go to a catalog for parts, add paint and polish and flip it, I would suspect that not a lot of people are much interested in helping you to make money.
BTW, back in the day, we rarely cut frames and we "made it our own" by bolting on parts from Dunstall or Bil Chuck or Gus Khun or Reads. No one made their own tank or seat. We rebuilt our bikes with whatever parts we could afford and wanted. And we just kept riding and upgrading and riding and changing and riding.....Rinse and repeat. YMMV.
Swapmeet Louie
Put some metal in yer eye....
^^^^ honest truth.
I for one am on a fixed income these days. It allows for $100 or so dollars a month for my hobby. If I eat for shit... So, what do I have in the works. What I had on hand! A VFR500r chassis and a bennelli 2-stroke. It fit. made some motor mount adapter plates out of some plate steal. and Im down to wiring. Its light( much lighter than a rd chassis), has factory anti-dive forks, clipons, rearsets, Dellorto flat-slides, Sillentium chambers and kick ass breaks. And with what I have on hand (more knowledge than $). It'll work! Be quick (not fast). It'll be great for the mountian twisties we have here. Crap on the freeway... When your on a budget, you REALLY need to get crafty. Its sounds like the lvl of your game isnt up to being cheap w/ quality yet. If it was. You wouldnt have these kinds of questions. Which is cool! We all started some where. But I do have to say it is all most criminal for a rookie to capitalize on it. Corners will b cut somewhere to make the budget. And a motor-pickle is already dangerous enough the way it is. STOCK. But any one w/ knowledge in this hobby will tell you it cost them $ to get it.
I for one am on a fixed income these days. It allows for $100 or so dollars a month for my hobby. If I eat for shit... So, what do I have in the works. What I had on hand! A VFR500r chassis and a bennelli 2-stroke. It fit. made some motor mount adapter plates out of some plate steal. and Im down to wiring. Its light( much lighter than a rd chassis), has factory anti-dive forks, clipons, rearsets, Dellorto flat-slides, Sillentium chambers and kick ass breaks. And with what I have on hand (more knowledge than $). It'll work! Be quick (not fast). It'll be great for the mountian twisties we have here. Crap on the freeway... When your on a budget, you REALLY need to get crafty. Its sounds like the lvl of your game isnt up to being cheap w/ quality yet. If it was. You wouldnt have these kinds of questions. Which is cool! We all started some where. But I do have to say it is all most criminal for a rookie to capitalize on it. Corners will b cut somewhere to make the budget. And a motor-pickle is already dangerous enough the way it is. STOCK. But any one w/ knowledge in this hobby will tell you it cost them $ to get it.
Swapmeet Louie
Put some metal in yer eye....
what Im workin with...
The body work.
The body work.
speedfourjoe
Active Member
twistekeys said:
Maybe a CR750 replica from a CB750? Here is a CR750.
twistekeys
Been Around the Block
Wahoo650 said:
Yeah that's true. I think just working on it is good enough. Correct me if I'm wrong but I see a lot of full on tear down cafe builds. Is that just to make a good looking cafe? Or is that how they did it back in the day? Isn't the point of cafes handling and speed?
twistekeys
Been Around the Block
Walms said:Now you're going in the right direction... If you really enjoy being at the top of the food chain, consider a Kawi triple.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the CBX1000 is the top of the food chain. (As a side note I'd pay an easy $20,000 for a cafe CBX)
Inline 4 = harmony. Inline 6 = Chaos.
