What bikes from the 80s are good Cafe Candidates?

[andrew6v]

Hi

I was wondering what bikes from the 80s make good Cafe candidates? By that I guess I mean what bikes from the 80s have the "straight" frame, so common in the 70s?

The reason I ask, I live in Nova Scotia the East coast of Canada, and bikes from the 70s are hard to come by. Since there are so few, those that are around are pretty overpriced, or at least too much money and too well kept to Cafe. However there are tons of bikes from the 80s that don't command a premium, and having stalked the ads for some time, a lot of different bikes come up.

Anyways I was just curious what you all have seen or know about that looks cool from the 80s.


Thanks

 

[Redbird]

Basically, any UJM style bike is gonna work for ya. Buy a machine in the best condition you can afford (it's much easier/cheaper to build up a runner than it is resurrect a basket case). And then you can add all the "Cool" yourself

 

[Big R]

I highly recommend the Suzuki GS's. Bulletproof motor, plenty of them around, fairly cheap, the parallel twins come in 450 and 650cc's, and the inline 4's go from 550cc's all the way to 1100.

 

[hillsy]

Most early 80's Jap bikes have flat sub-frames. After 84 or so they started to down-draft the carbs and then the frames and tanks went kinda AWOL.

Steer clear of the crusier variants (Kawa LTD's, Suzuki "L", Honda "C", Yamaha Maxim), as they normally have leading axle forks, 16" rear wheels and sometimes modified (lowered) sub-frames.

The GS450's went up to 1988 and pretty much have the same frame all the way through until the GS500 took over in 89 (with the spar frame). Heavy engines though......