Cafe Racer-vs-Streetfighter?

I was reading the latest Cycle World this morning. They have a big feature on "Streetfighters" this month. Low bars, stripped down body work, custom paint... all of which might be confused with a "Cafe Racer".

Is "streetfighter" just a more acceptable name for "cafe racer" or did I miss something?

BTW there is some sweet work pictured in this issue... Roland Sands take on the Ducati Hypermotard is damn sexy.

Think of street fighter as a "dirty" cafe racer. Street fighters tend to be about "presence" while cafe racers are more concerned with "class". A lot of 80s Japanese sport motorcycles find themselves to be "street fighters" after a few years in a city. You can usually recognize them by their removed body work, reworked headlights and flat black paint. there's an AWESOME looking R1100S street fighter that appears in a helmet ad (can't remember the manufacturer) in many cycle mags. no faring, speed tripple headlights (i think) and generally very stainless steel and flat black. Cafe racers on the other hand, are usually made from somewhat older bikes, are stripped down and generally are very pretty, nicely painted and polished. Norton Commandos, BSAs, Triumph Bonnevilles, Airheads and increasingly UJMs from the 70s are the bikes that get this treatment. There's a lot of crossover (fancy streetfighters, dirty cafe racers) but usually they can be told apart mostly by their year of manufacture and even then there's some discrepancy. A lot of new bikes emulate both (street fighter - speed tripple, cafe racer - bonneville thruxton)

street fighter (this was a ninja)



cafe racer (one of our beloved airheads)

BubbaZanetti said:

Think of street fighter as a "dirty" cafe racer. Street fighters tend to be about "presence" while cafe racers are more concerned with "class". A lot of 80s Japanese sport motorcycles find themselves to be "street fighters" after a few years in a city. You can usually recognize them by their removed body work, reworked headlights and flat black paint. there's an AWESOME looking R1100S street fighter that appears in a helmet ad (can't remember the manufacturer) in many cycle mags. no faring, speed tripple headlights (i think) and generally very stainless steel and flat black. Cafe racers on the other hand, are usually made from somewhat older bikes, are stripped down and generally are very pretty, nicely painted and polished. Norton Commandos, BSAs, Triumph Bonnevilles, Airheads and increasingly UJMs from the 70s are the bikes that get this treatment. There's a lot of crossover (fancy streetfighters, dirty cafe racers) but usually they can be told apart mostly by their year of manufacture and even then there's some discrepancy. A lot of new bikes emulate both (street fighter - speed tripple, cafe racer - bonneville thruxton)

street fighter (this was a ninja)

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COOL! It looks like a turbo has been added. I'm not so sure the 6 or 7 inches of pipe after the turbo would do much to muffle the noise though.

So maybe what we're seeing is an evolution in the term cafe racer with that phrase now being applied to "vintage" bikes. Looking at pictures from back in the day, those guys were doing to their bikes what the street fighters are doing now.

One of the major differences I see is the ergonomics. Having made cafe racers out of a couple of Honda 4cyl's I was always going for the racer look bent over short bars or clip ons with rear sets. Now the street fighter go the opposite route wide uprite bars almost motocross style and your feet right under your seat. To me it's more like the difference between a classic bobber and a chopper.

Back in the olden days...

Cafe racers were made from bikes from the 50's, 60's and 70's, which were basically "standard" style motorcycles.

Streetfighters basically came about from full on sportbikes that had been crashed and were now without their plastic. They needed new lights, etc. so were now "naked". Nowdays, they make bikes like the Speed Triple from Triumph, which are nothing more than a Triumph Daytona 955 or 1050 without its "clothes" on.

At least, that's how I see it.

Cafe racers have clip-ons and rear sets and zero to minimal bodywork; possibly a half fairing. Street fighters have a motorcross style handlebar, up right riding stance and no rearsets. I think of the Aprilia Tuono as the modern street fighter, the
Ducati paul smart 1000 as a cafe racer.

Bars pay a part in how you differentiate the two in many ways today, a manner of riding style. In the past a caf?® racer had a large engine stuffed into the least amount of bike that would make it go. Now it seems to be bikes that people built themselves. Street fighters as a class seem to be bikes that people buy and accessorize.

The original cafe racers were built for such weekly/nightly activities as the famous Ace Cafe ( http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/History.aspx ) racing in the south of England. Where patrons would drop a coin in the juke box, get on their steeds and ride to a point and return before the song ended. Speed, lightweight and handling were the main factors as it was pure street racing.

Later cafe inspired classics included bikes available to the masses as the Suzuki Paul Dunstall GT750 http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/gt750/dunstall.htm and as mentioned above there Ducati Paul Smart and there are several others too.

The streetfighter designation according to the magazine articles are derived from crashed crotch rockets with the body removed. The Triumph Speed Triple, Aprilia Tuono certainly demonstrate that design heritage.

From Wikipedia

Streetfighter

Caf?® racer

Cafe Racer = Harley Davidson.












From corner bar to corner bar.

I'm in the process of building a BMW custom hotrod. No it's not a cafe racer or a street fighter. It's more of a bar hopper. In car hot rod parlance a big lead sled. Like a big early 50's Buick or Mercury that been custamized for the street. Bigger is better. Fender skirts, curb feelers, spot lamps, lake pipes. I hope to have it done in time for the MOA national next summer in the South.

Ridealot said:

COOL! It looks like a turbo has been added. I'm not so sure the 6 or 7 inches of pipe after the turbo would do much to muffle the noise though.

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That looks like a GPZ 750 Turbo. Turbo was factory. I had one of these in 84/5 and was so unqualified to ride it. I ended up selling it to a guy who couldn't find one at a dealer, and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I honestly believe selling that bike saved my life.

Street fighters have to do more with handling and doing tricks. The old cafe racers were just made to be stripped and fast, more like the race bikes of the time.

Cafe Racer:

a bike that has been modified such that it gives the illusion of being faster than the original bike. The typical cafe racer is a British bike from the fifties, sixties and seventies, and were modified because they sat around so long in various states of dis-assembly, the owners lost some of the parts. (From experience this was either due to sub standard construction, or Lucas, Prince of Darkness). Cafe racing was required at the time, because there were no cell phones, so you had to race to the cafe before your bike expired, to obtain breakdown assistance for your friend's bike.

Street Fighter:

a bike that has been modified such that it gives the illusion of being faster than the original bike. The typical Street Fighter is a Japanese bike from the eighties or nineties, and were modified because the owner dropped the bike doing a wheelie to impress his girlfriend, and the replacement parts were either made of unobtanium, or beyond the means of your average 19 year old male. The bikes became known as Street Fighters because their owners would congregate in groups fighting over a scrap of broken fibreglass at the curbside.

Regards, Rod.

when i see a street fighter, i think, "tough looking bike. cool."

when i see a cafe racer, i think, "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. cool."

both make my heart sing because they are created/owned by people passionate about motorcycling.

username said:

when i see a street fighter, i think, "tough looking bike. cool."

when i see a cafe racer, i think, "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. cool."

both make my heart sing because they are created/owned by people passionate about motorcycling.

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i love the sentiment. both are truly great!