What does it mean, is it an insult, bike or title? Is it a mere relic of motorcycling past? Is it something far greater, a lifestyle or brotherhood that transcends time itself. I believe the last to be true. Like any other great or noble title that portrays men of any time or walk of life Café Racer is home among them. Putting a freeze frame time clip on the Café Racer would be like doing it for the title US Marine, different line of work yes, but they both have evolved with time, with the technology, with the world. When the Café Racer was born the British twin was the bike that could be attained and molded into the weapon if you will for the riders of the day. The basics of a stripped down, all business, all speed and agility bike have not changed. Granted the world to include the motorcycling one has progressed. We can walk into a dealership and buy a damn near race ready machine in this beautiful new world. Yet that does not substitute the fully tweaked home build race weapons that still grace our roads the world over, or the riders of these machines that have put in the countless hours of riding and wrenching to have fully mastered them. Café Racer is a title that both man and machine get labeled. I know we all think of the British bloke in the 1960’s with his pudding pot helmet, white silk scarf, and leather jacket making a one song run from the Ace Café to the London bridge and back, on a Featherbed framed Bonnie going ton up. We are right if we are talking about the original Café Racer back in that time period.
Are we so bold as to say that noble breed of men who look fear in the eye and told it to bugger off is no longer riding among us? I sure as hell hope not. We might not be ridding British steel anymore, it might have been traded many years ago for Nippon aluminum, or Italian exotica, but it is still alive and well. We still burn many hours wrenching and tweaking our machines into something for more potent than the government would allow or the factories would breed. We are still out there on our bastard rides in the rain, cold, and bad weather honing our skills just like our forefathers. The ton still holds a place close to our hearts even when we can reach it in quite a few gears, we have not forgot our past. Just like the US Marines are no longer carrying flint lock muskets, but are still among the most aggressive and feared on the battlefield, the Café Racer has done the same. The tools have changed, but the aggressive seemingly fearless nature has not. We have stepped up the game with the times. Our machines have grown faster, our gear better, our skills have also grown to match.
So lets not forget they are still among us, and can still be found piloting machines that though updated still carry they same soul. The machines that show time in the elements, that are stripped down for speed, upgraded and tweaked with only performance in mind. Leather that may only be a season old, but look as if the rider had wheelied out of his mother’s womb wearing them. They are the guys that challenges you to a race when your bike outclasses there‘s, and doesn’t even seem to flinch. It is the man that rides in the bad weather with a smile on there face. The guy that doesn't have a girlfriend because she would end up taking time from his bike, but he always has a red head nearby, because red hair and black leather is his favorite color scheme for some reason. They are the guys on old outdated machines taking down newer bikes. Even the guys that have grown up and gotten out of going ton up, can still spot there own, smell it on them and know they are brothers. Like I said the machines have changed, but the sprit is still there, waiting for the untrained man on his shiny new super bike to take the bait, or his own kind to try to have a good run. We are out there, and only happy when we are destroying a road with our hair on fire going ton up…
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