Vintage Motorcycles aka Café Racer

The term café racer developed among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s, specifically the Rocker (or ton-up boy) subculture. The term describes a style of motorcycle for quick rides from one “transport café”or coffee bar to another. Cafe Racers were also common in Italy, France and other European countries.

In 1973, US freelance writer Wallace Wyss, contributing to Popular Mechanics magazine, asserted the term café racer was originally used in Europe as a “put-down” toward riders who pretended to be road racers but instead only parked outside cafés.

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The café racer is a light and lightly powered motorcycle that has been modified for speed and handling rather than comfort. The bodywork and control layout of a café racer typically mimicked the style of a contemporary Grand Prix roadracer, featuring an elongated fuel tank, often with dents to allow the rider’s knees to grip the tank, low slung racing handlebars, and a single-person, elongated, humped seat.

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A signature trait was the use of low, narrow handlebars that allowed the rider to “tuck in” — a posture with reduced wind resistance and better control. These handlebars, known as “clip-ons” (two-piece bars that bolt directly to each fork tube), “clubmans” or “ace bars” (one piece bars that attach to the standard mounting location but drop down and forward). The ergonomics resulting from low bars and the rearward seat often required “rearsets”, or rear-set footrests and foot controls, again typical of racing motorcycles of the era. Distinctive half or full race-style fairings were sometimes mounted to the forks or frame.

The bikes had a utilitarian, stripped-down appearance, engines tuned for maximum speed and lean, light road handling. The well-known example was “The Triton”, a homemade combination of Norton Featherbed frame and Triumph Bonneville engine. It used a common and fast racing engine combined with a well-handling frame, the Featherbed frame by Norton Motorcycles. Those with less money could opt for a “Tribsa”—the Triumph engine in a BSA frame. Other combinations such as the “Norvin” (a Vincent V-Twin engine in a Featherbed frame) and racing frames by Rickman or Seeley were also adopted for road use.

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Café racer styling evolved throughout the time of their popularity. By the mid-1970s, Japanese bikes had overtaken British bikes in the marketplace, and the look of real Grand Prix racing bikes had changed. The hand-made, frequently unpainted aluminium racing fuel tanks of the 1960s had evolved into square, narrow, fibreglass tanks. Increasingly, three-cylinder Kawasaki two-strokes, four-cylinder four-stroke Kawasaki Z1, and four-cylinder Hondas were the basis for café racer conversions. By 1977, a number of manufacturers had taken notice of the café racer boom and were producing factory café racers, most notably the Harley-Davidson XLCR.

In the mid-1970s, riders continued to modify standard production motorcycles into so-called “café racers” by simply equipping them with clubman bars and a small fairing around the headlight. A number of European manufacturers, including Benelli, BMW, Bultaco and Derbi produced factory “café” variants of their standard motorcycles in this manner, without any modifications made to make them faster or more powerful.

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MANX TT: TEN THINGS YOU (MIGHT NOT) KNOW

1. The Isle of Man TT began in 1907, after a law was cleared in 1904 that allowed roads to be closed for the Gordon Bennett car trials.

2. When the race first started practice sessions used to take place in the early morning with regular traffic. Charlie Collier and Rem Fowler were the two winners of the then two-class race (single and double).

3. The BBC started broadcasting the race live after the second world war.

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Eric P Glasper ’72

4. The current course is 37.73 miles (six laps) which was adopted in 1920, though the original course (known as St. John’s course) was under half this at 15.6 miles. There was also a course called the Clypse Course for Sidecar, Ultra Lightweight and Lightweight race. It was first used in 1954 and was 10.79 miles long.

5. The TT route is scattered with memorials to the various riders who have been killed or injured during the gruelling race. In 1970 alone 6 riders were killed and in its history it has taken 223 lives.

6) In 1977 the race lost its world championship title, due to safety reasons, though continued as an opportunity for any road race enthusiasts to make their mark, including John Mc Guinness who took 15 wins, Phil “Hizzy” Hislop who took 11 and Phillip McCallen who took 11

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Dunlop 1982

7 The ‘King of the Road’, Joey Dunlop OBE MBE is undoubtedly the most decorated rider that the TT has seen, with a total of 26 wins. His first win was in 1977 and he has gained titles such as: “7 Formula 1, 4 Senior, 3 Junior, 5 Lightweight and 5 UltraLightweight Races, plus the 1977 Jubilee Race and the 1980 Classic 1000”. He is also the only rider in history to have 3 hat-tricks to his name- “1985 F1, Senior and Junior, 1988 F1, Senior and Junior and in 2000 the Formula One, Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight.” In 2002 the 26th Milestone was renamed “Joey’s” in his memory.

8 The race was cancelled in 2001 due to a Britain-wide outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease.

9 The fastest ever lap was set by John McGuinness riding a 1000 HM Plant Honda in 2007 in the Senior TT, clocking 17m 21.99s at a speed of 130.354mph. This lap time also lead him to take the fastest race time of 1hr 11m 56.29s. In 2007, the centenary of the event all but 1 category for both lap and race records were shattered.

10 The 2009 race saw John McGuinness destroy his previous lap record in the Senior TT category riding a Honda CBR1000R with a time of 17’12.30 and an average speed of 131.578 mph.
2009 also saw the first zero-emissions race with 15 all-electric bikes.

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Ducati 1977

CLOSER TO THE EDGE

Whatever you think of the ethical whys and wherefores of the Isle of Man TT, hold tight until 22 April, when the the 3D documentary Closer to the Edge will hit screens all over the UK.

It focuses on self-style maverick Guy Martin and his love of Road Racing – and examines the motivations, action and consequences of some of the most dangerous racing ever taken on by man and machine.

Not having seen the film at time of writing we can’t really comment – but we’ve always been of the opinion that danger is an inherent and wholly understood aspect of motor racing of all kinds.

As long as there are roads and machines, men and women are going to want to race them – no matter what the consequences.

Look out for the movie. It’s bound to be a worthwhile watch.

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