Some great Cafe racer photos

Wow,

Those take me back to a different time. And they said that time travel wasn't possible. What do they know? ::)

The other thing I noticed is that while we all prefer to remember the 650SS Domi and Goldies and Tritons, most of the bikes back in teh day were things like Royal Oilfields and Norton Jubilees and Triumph Cubs etc.

Not as inspiring perhaps, but that's what most of us could afford, so they made up teh bulk of cafe racers then... and now.
 
Wish I'd seen this earlier, I had couple of the Royal 'oilfields'
Super 5, Continental and Continental GT (the only one I have pictures of)
 
Thanx for the headsup on that one Zodiac. Come over all rose tinted.

Now then my US mates - your starter for ten ........... what did you NOT see on any of the bikes and only on one helmet?
 
Bloody excellent! I need to find pics of my wife's uncles from the 60's, they all had bsa's norton's and honda's and rode like there was no tomorrow.

Loved it.
 
Come on guys - who's going to pick up the cudgels to beat me up ????

here's another clue - They're black and white - even in a colour pic.

Just a bit of light hearted banter here - nothing heavy.
 
I can't count when I look at old pictures ;D
It was 'tacky', even back then.
Buy some tape from Halfords? ::)
Even as a 7 yr old I thought it looked stupid
 
One checker on a rider, the other was on a helmet laying on a seat.


I didn't realize how common it was for the clip ons to be mounted near the lower clamp. Must have had backs of steel back then!
 
Here's my observations - from the day.

The only checker [ chequer ] I ever remember seeing was around the bottom of some Puddin Basin helmets and ditto round the bottom of Coppers' flat caps.

Checker was the domain of Mods - usually down the front apron of the Scooters - along with multiple spotlights, half a dozen or more whip aerials with the occasional Fox tail.

Mods rarely wore helmets- as it messed up their hairdo's.

There was the tongue in cheek George Formby film in which they completely covered the "star" bike in checker - it was a piss take.

Despite what you may think - checker was NEVER used as part of a paint scheme or even "go faster stripes".

If someone wants to use it now - no foul, but please don't blame it on those of us who were there .............................

Now then, if someone has photographic evidence to the contrary ????????
 
Rich,
here's a pic of my ex-Brother in Law's B33 on it's way to being "Goldie 'ised".

This was about a week after he road it home - bog standard.

Later it got the full Goldie treatment, including a DBD34 top end complete that we bought as a complete engine with the crank out of it's brains.

The low clip-ons were way radical compared with a real race bike - it was just part of the Cafe Racer image at the time.

johnsB33.jpg
 
Well, no questioning your knowledge and experience, but there were quite a few tid-bits of 'chequer' on a number of those pics, including a little strip of it around a gauge on one of the last pics.
 
Hey Tim,

all in jest mate ........... ;)

I NOW how you Colonials [ex] love the checker tape !!!!!

I checked [ sorry-nearly pun] with some of my old biking mates - I even checked with John Hancox as I asked him to put some checker in the some of the DTT related images - his response was "Why??" 8)

Yes, there was the odd bit here and there - but even then hardly anything to speak of. It was mainly the "youngsters". But look at any group pix of the day - you'll hardly spot any [ apart from helmets ]. I think it was Everoak actually sold a range of puddin basin helmets with the checker around the base. And as for it being part of a main "clourway/ paint scheme" - never seen it.

Hey Hoof where are you when a buddy needs back up !!!!!!! :D

But as I said - no foul if someone decides it "looks right" today, just NOT of my day. 8)
 
Ya, I'm not a fan of the checker pattern, but I'm not gonna bash somebody else for using it.

I saw that pic before TJ, hurts my back to look at it......
 
It's not your back that hurts, it's your neck.
Back only hurts if you have weak stomach muscles and footrests are in wrong position
I have some sort of ruptured disc because of clubman's and clip-on bars, when I tilt my head back you can feel it 'popping out'
Doctor told me it's also real common with house painters (painting ceilings)
Beachcomber, I'm not as old as Hoof but my father never had a car licence, he knew a lot of people on bikes in 60's, I grew up with it
 
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