What is the fascination w/Cafe Racers?

barryg said:

Those colorful and decorated southwest baskets bring out the cafe style of your bike.

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s09rwmb said:

ItÔÇÖs the human scale of a motorcycle that makes it such a fascinating and tempting target for the inspired biker/builders among us. A person needs a garage, tools, industrial equipment and a V-8 size bank account to play around with creating a custom car. But one can build a beautiful custom motorcycle by taking parts to machine shop, the welder and painter and bringing them home to be assembled in the comfort of ones own living room and that makes it possible for anyone to have a go at building a Caf?® bike.

There is an old argument in design school. It is the yin and yang of form and function. ÔÇ£Do you want it to look great OR go fastÔÇØ? ÔÇ£Well, personally I would like as much as I can get of bothÔÇØ, Motorcycles are already ALL about form and function right off the production line. It is up to the builders to take what the factory gives them and ÔÇÿcompleteÔÇÖ the exercise. The customs like the Caf?® bike takes form and function to a more personal, individual, anthropomorphic state of being. Sometimes these custom cafe bikes will simply take your breath away they are so cool. They are meant to be more than just motorcycles. The ones that succeed are a perfect extension of the owners personality.

I build an American version of the Caf?® Racer I call a ÔÇ£Bar BikeÔÇØ. (What else you gonna call it over here?). I make them simple, small, light, flickable and FUN. I use short frames and small tanks, big motors, solo seats, spoke wheels and I modify the steel and plastic to expose the motorcycles functions making them a part of the form thus blending form and function into one. That in Design school is the pan-ultimate success and that in the motorcycle world is a Caf?® racer by definition. BMW has given me a great collection of basic parts to re-arrange any way I want to. If I could have only one motorcycle, it would be a caf?® machine.

Reading list:
The Perfect Vehicle ~ what is it about motorcycles? by Melissa Holbrook Pierson.
Motorcycle Handling and Chassis Design ~ the art and science (yin / yang thing) by Tony Foale (and originally with Vic Willoughby)
The Art of the Motorcycle ~ A publication of the Smithsonian Institute, Catalog of the show.

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