Is there any record of a Honda-4 in a featherbed doing anything well? I know that the first superbike champion Reg Pridmore tried putting a Kawasaki triple into his featherbed racer and It did not work, he had no cornering clearance, so he put a Norton engine back into it and was very happy with it. I know that the Honda 750-four was a great bike as built, and with a race-kit version, CR750 it won the Daytona 200 in what 1969? But the Cafe Racer movement today is based on what is trendy and fashionable, so it does not matter how the bike works I suppose, if it handles like a three legged camel that does not mean you can not putt to the local watering hole and pose on it, that is all a cafe bike has to do, make it to wherever it can be posed upon. I like the downgrade on the front brake too, going from a bulletproof and competent Honda disk to a nice trendy fashionable drum brake, another classic move made every day by those participating in the fashion trend cafe racer scene. Someday if anyone actually wants a bike that works they can always take Reg Pridmore's cue, a champion's cue, and take out the Honda Four and put a better choice in it. Good luck.
Old men pointing at each other
- Thread starter gben
- Start date
That's a lot consternation for a new guy with no clue who he's bitching at. Must be lonely drinking at a keyboard on Friday night. GTFO with your tired "Cafer Racer movement" bitching, old man.
Wow. I'll admit that when I first joined up here there were lots of "posers" around; take some parts off, spray it all flat black, and get a leather jacket. But most of that bunch have been gone for a long time and those active on here are predominantly folk who are experienced, know what they are doing, willing to learn from each other, and aren't posers. Though it's still DTT and acknowledges the heritage this place seems to me populated with builders rather than posers.
Do you have any credentials which give any legitimacy to your speculation? Or are you just a google/keyboard warrior? Nice info on what Reg Pridmore did back in the day with the early superbike movement, but how much of that is from google and how much is first hand? Do you know Reg? Do you race? Did you race with Reg?
Have you ever raced or even ridden hard on the early Honda single piston, pivoting caliper disc brake? Have you ever raced or even ridden hard on a well set up drum brake? I have done both and the Honda single piston brake is not that good. I have done a lot of racing with well set up drums and they are the equal or superior compared with the Honda disc and have better feel, in my opinion. Have you ever raced a featherbed? I have raced a triton with drum brakes and it was not great, but it was good, just like all of the street bike based roadracers back then. You are looking at history and I am looking at it from the position of memories. Unless you were racing in the 70's and 80's, your opinion is based on second hand info at best.
Talking about posers?
One of my bikes Reg Pridmore won a championship with and I have talked with him about it. You should look up the rules of debate and find how "ad hominem attacks" mean, "at the man", which is what those losing debates resort to because they have nothing to ad on the actual subject at hand. Now go draw a nice big "L" on your forhead and look for someone with fewer brains that you have, that should keep you very, very busy for a long, long time.
Why would someone who owns two real Norton racing bikes spend their time trying to make a street bike look like a real Norton racing bike? I thnk it is particularly amusing when people put "Norton" tank decals onto Japanese bikes, convert Harley sportsters to look like Vincents etc.. Oh, and can you teach us all how to tell if someone's motorcycle, maybe hundreds or thousands of miles away, is modified or not going on just it being listed on an internet forum with no photos? That is quite a talent !!! Did you seriously modify your crystal ball to make it handle better than it did new? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Are you seriously preaching against ad hominem attacks while making ad hominem attacks? Okay. GTFO
And as always, always always, there is the eternal assumption that a "Cafe Racer" is a motorcycle, when in reality it was always a person. Since the members here are so eager to mention how they are aware of what "Google" is, you would think that they could have looked up actual photos of what the motorcycles "Cafe Racers" rode in the 50s/60s usually looked like, and they would see that most all of them rode nearly stock motorcycles contemporary to them, slightly used bikes with maybe a few simple bolt-ons. Oh, and they were interested in going fast, testing their limits on the street you know, like the owners of sport bikes are to this very day. This is in stark contrast to today, when the hipsters participating in their invented fashion trend have redefined "Cafe Racer" from being young people riding contemporary motorcycles quickly, to those riding obsolete bikes modified mainly to fit a cookie-cutter aesthetic ripped off of racing machinery used 60 years ago, and of course saying that the street is no place to test your limits huh? If their vision had anything to do with reality, that would mean that the "cafe racers" of the 50s/60s would have been putting around on pre-WWI rigid frame bikes and costumed to suit.
Me? I don't worry about making myself or any of my bikes look like anything, and I have ridden them hundreds of miles faster than is legal on the streets, and have had parts fall of them after grinding them in two dragging them around highway ramps. That alone makes me more of a cafe racer than any hipster afraid to break rules, if I had a sport bike that was not too old I would be spot, on. If one falls into my lap great, if not I won't worry about that either.
Psssssssst, you changed the subject of the thread from featherbed specials to me, can you remember that far back? Once you switch to a new subject why shouldn't anyone else be able to participate especially those you are attacking? Nice try, but as lame as your participation in the trendy and fashionable, and fully expected. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Rat_ranger
Coast to Coast
Post up proof, or are you all talk boomer?
The original cafe racers were similar to the early bobbers and choppers in the US. Stripped down bikes with the intent to go faster. Be it on the road, hillclimb, or scramble.
Tritons came about due to a surplus of featherbeds with no engine thanks to the car racers, and triumphs having a crap frame. How many different engines ended up in featherbeds? Triumph, BSA, Vincent, Ariel, Harley etc.
Modern cafe racers are just like modern choppers. They are mostly about looks. No matter how hard you push a period correct manx norton it'll get left behind by a 600, hell it'll probably have a hard time keeping up with the 300-400cc sport bikes.
As for not pushing the limits on the street, I have a job to go to. I have bills to pay and significantly more traffic to deal with than there was 50+ years ago. If I wanted to go fast I'd buy another sportbike, hell the drz400sm I recently sold would have smoked most vintage bikes to 100mph.
P.S. you came in and whined causing this thread to go off topic. So no, Irk didn't change the topic, you did.
Go cope harder that the past turned into a now dying trend and realize that your former glories are forgotten and no one cares.
You could learn the difference between a question and an accusation. I asked a series of legitimate questions and you answered only one. At least you have had conversation with Reg Pridmore and may have some insight into his perspective on the handling characteristics of the original superbikes. I regret that I inferred that you were a poser, that was unkind and not pertinent to the questions I asked. Your reply was considerably more insulting and could lead one to have suspicions about your character.
P.S. Having owned a bike that was owned by a former champion does not increase ones credibility.
Actually, Unity did most of the business it ever did in the 80s and later after hipsters re-invented what a "cafe racer" was. In reality, in the 50s and 60s the poor working class riders either made engine plates themselves to put a Triump engine into an old Norton, or they did nothing at all and just rode mostly stock motorcycles. This is glaringly apparent for anyone who has done the bare minimum of research. Here are period photos of the 59 club gathering, Ace Cafe etc. Notice that they have mostly standard bikes, becaue a Cafe Racer back then was a person, not a fashion accessory as it is now, and also back then the "racer" came from riding fast instead of riding slowly somewhere to pose with said fashion accessory. Have a nice day.....
59 club gathering in early 60s;
More standard bikes at the Ace Cafe:
More perfectly standard machines with real cafe racers, not hipsters;
Leave it to an overaged has-been to get on here trying to be a gatekeeping troll. You have nothing to offer but conflict, judgement, name-calling and a picture of a motorcycle stuffed at the back of your trashy garage with a bunch of junk stored on top of it. You don't even ride. GTFO
So you want the forum rules to be that nobody posts if they are older, are not riding their bike because it goes below freezing for five months where they live, and their garage is not analy as clean and organized as yours, got it. And also I am to understand that nobody can ever post on internet forums unless they do nothing but blow sunshine up everyone's skirt, no critical discussions allowed, got it. Of course I already knew that hipsters can't have any conversation that is not the equivalent of their mommy taping their latest drawing ontot the refrigerator door, so tell me something I don't know......
I am not concerned with him specifically, it is just the current active thread. The fact that you and your peers think internet forums should not have any real or critical discussion, is admitting that you are just here for, and desperately need the circle-jerk prospect it offers right? For me, I just think it is interesting that current hipsters have rewritten the definition of a cafe-racer to the opposite of what it was in the 50s and 60s. From performance riding and interest in performance motorcycles, to just making fashionable jewelry that performs worse than what the factory offered. This is a great case in point. Everyone knows that featherbed Nortons were great racing bikes, and everyone knows that the Honda CB750 had it's day, winning the DAytona 200 with Dick Mann as a rider in about 1969 or '70. But here we have someone taking a Honda 750 and ditching it's sturdy frame for a flimsy old featherbed that was not designed for the weight or width of the cb750 engine, and also throwing away the stock more modern disk brake for a drum unit. To make a bike that is not going to handle as well as a stock Norotn featherbed with a light narrow single or twin engine in it, and not as good handling as a CB750 with it's original frame can be made to handle either. So why is it being done? So someone can participate in a fashion trend . A few years ago I saw someone scrap a modern Aprilia sport bike, take it's 1000cc v-twin engine and put IT into a featherbed Norton frame, for a bike far, far worse to ride than the Aprilia could ever be, amazing. Oh, and by the way, the Triumph bikes were excellent handling machines, look up what a "Thruxton Bonneville" was and how it won on the twisty IOM TT course. It did not matter that it's swingarm was mounted to one frame tube because it had steel plates bracing it to the very rigid unit engine, so it all worked together well. I am sure that the current crop of "cafe racers" could figure out a way to modify it and ruin it's handling though.
Classic boomer shit - you have no idea who I am or what I think but are willing to jump to false conclusions and personally insult me for no reason. You claim to want to have a "critical discussion" but are only interested in your opinion and insulting anyone who differs. If you talked to people like this in the real world you'd probably have your clock cleaned daily.
Ive made a thread HERE so you can share your very special and unique thoughts on the cafe racer scene or have a "critical discussion" as you call it, but stop cocking up this guys thread. Do you think you are going to berate him into building a bike to your standards? thats insane, you're just being a petty at this point.
I'll reiterate. You've made your point(s) - If you don't like what you see then move the fuck on.
Ive made a thread HERE so you can share your very special and unique thoughts on the cafe racer scene or have a "critical discussion" as you call it, but stop cocking up this guys thread. Do you think you are going to berate him into building a bike to your standards? thats insane, you're just being a petty at this point.
I'll reiterate. You've made your point(s) - If you don't like what you see then move the fuck on.
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Calling people names, like hipsters, says everything about your intentions. You just came in to bully. The trash in your garage on top of that bike shows freezing temps is by far not the reason you don't ride. That bike hasn't been ridden in a long time.
