1976 Benelli 750 Sei

Oscar Wilde once said "Beauty is a form of genius". If this is true, then German builder Julius Bott is one clever guy. Julius built this beautiful Benelli Cafe Racer after purchasing it from a friend a few years ago. It was a complete wreck, or a piece of "sheisse" as they might say in German. It took Julius two solid years to rebuild this bike from the ground up. He knew right from the beginning that he wanted to build a classic styled cafe racer. Julius started by completely overhauling the engine back to better than original condition – it still produces 58 hp. Amazingly, the Benelli Sei was the first production motorcycle with a 6-cylinder engine – based on the four-cylinder Honda CB500 only with two extra cylinders. Julius has added many things you wouldn't find on the original though. Like the tank which is an old Honda racing tank and the seat is off a Laverda. He also replaced all the electrics and repainted the frame in a striking gold. One word sums up this stunning project, and it's the only other German word I know (apart from Bier)... wonderbar!
[Thanks Michiel at BMW Cafe Blog]

Café Racer TV Series

In just over a week, the much anticipated new series about Café Racers launches. It kick starts on October 13th on Discovery HD Theater and will consist of thirteen episodes from past to present. Here's a blurb from the makers of the series:

'Expect to see rare historical film footage and more rockabilly music than a Gene Vincent reunion tour, all in stunning high-def format broadcast on your favorite channel, Discovery HD Theater. In addition you'll be able to watch, as a handful of builders produce some of the most amazing motorcycles all paying homage to the grand daddy of modern sport and race bikes.'

Sounds like there's a ton of reasons to tune in. For more info check out the Café Racer TV website. [Spotted on Return of the Cafe Racer]

Yamaha SR400 - The Varkain

A few months ago we featured another SR400 built by Raider Motorsports in Coffs Harbour. Well, it looks like they've been up to their old tricks again – turning stockers into rockers. Their latest bike is the black sheep of the family and is appropriately named The Varkian – which is Finish for "By Stealth". "As with all our motor-sickles, the Varkain is 100% designed and hand-built in our garden shed" says Maurice from Raider Motorsport. "The frame has been stripped, all the ugly OEM brackets and mounts hacked off before a trip to the sandblasters and then over to the powder-coaters. The engine has been disassembled, all clearances and OEM tolerances checked and/or refined prior to reassembly and some trick heat-proof coatings and making of lots of shiny bits and pieces. Engine side cases are powder-coated, as are the rims and hubs. The Varkain has a stack of custom and handmade accessories, far to many to mention and more than you can see in the pics, plus the usual neat bits and pieces our customers have come to expect, like new wiring loom, LED warning lights, new vintage Firestone tyres, new seat from our Nitro-Bed range, new custom paint, blah blah blah and stacks more!"

If you want to view more pics of the Varkain build, from "stripped and naked to all dressed up and ready to play", visit the Raider Motorsport gallery. The bike is for sale and is currently at Chidiac Motor Group showroom in Sydney if you want to check it out in person.

 

1971 Honda CB750 Café Racer

There's no denying that the Portland café racer scene is alive and well. Especially when we keep coming across stunning bikes like this 1971 CB750, owned and built by Portland local Phil G. It has been his project and obsession for the last 2 1/2 years but doesn't want to take all the glory. "I would like to sit here and tell you that I did it all myself but i have to give credit were credit is due" says Phil. While the overall concept and design of the bike was all Phil, there are a few very important elements that would not have been possible without the help from his very talented friends. "I have to say thanks to Sam Hill for welding the custom oil tank and the 5" stretch into the fuel tank, also to Sean Smith for laying down the beautiful black paint, Paul Burdette for the stage 3 port job and general engine building help, Ginger McCabe of New Church Customs for the seat pad, and to Deon Staffelbach for the awesome photography. Other than that I pretty much did everything myself." I asked Phil why there's so many custom bikes coming out of Portland and he replied "maybe it's the long wet winters, plenty of time to build, not a lot of time to ride." With winter approaching over there, we look forward to seeing more impressive builds after they come out of hibernation. 

Spec list:
Engine bored out to 850
Stage three ported head
Super flow valves
Webcam 63a grind
Cyclex super rods
Balanced and lightened crank and rotor
Under cut tranny
All new bearings and chains inside
CR 29 carbs
Custom aluminum oil tank
Stock fuel tank stretched 5" with knee dents
Custom rear sets (modeled after dunstall rear sets from the 70's)
Custom s.s. muffler

Honda CRM250 Café Racer

Thomas Lonnen has been building and riding bikes since he was a kid – although building this bike was no child's play. After having an accident and breaking his leg quite badly on a 2001 CR250, he decided to use the CR engine in this café racer project. Starting with a Honda CRM250 he cleaned the frame of brackets and welds then made the subframe to suit the aluminium body work – which was all beautifully home made. "I've been a welder since I left school" said Thom. "That's the forth tank I've made and they are getting better each time." Thomas then fitted the CR250 motor with a lighting coil making it AC electrics, "so I had to borrow a horn from an old vespa" he says." The forks were taken from a Suzuki GS400, motard rims from an XR400SM and the overall weight of this super light bike is under 90Kg. 

Thomas told us that after building bikes for the last ten years "I've accumulated a nice collection of home made mini bikes." Most of his motorbikes have caused a stir on the streets of Hong Kong where Thom lives. He's next project is going to be a classic style street scrambler using on a Yamaha XT600 – we're already looking forward to seeing it.

Photographer profile - Mondo Lulu

Mondo Lulu is a photographer and designer living in Toronto. We spotted some of his Café Racer photos on Flickr and thought we'd asked him a few questions:

Pipeburn: What inspires you?
Mondo Lulu: Great Photography. Great design, both man-made and natural. A different take on things that make me say, "why didn't I think of that..."

PB: What do you ride?
ML: I like small bikes. A ratty little Chinese scooter for fun and a bigger Italian one for utility.

PB: What is your dream bike?
ML: Coveting my friend's Japanimated Yamaha SR500 (pictured below). But a Honda Dream 305 will do me just fine.

PB: What is dotheton.com (for those that don't know) and how are you involved?
ML: dotheton.com is a café racer website, founded in Toronto, that has grown to encompass thousands of members internationally. started going on late-night chilly november rides with them in '08, documenting our hijinks with my camera.

PB: What is your 'cafe speed' series for?
ML: The studio shots are stills for a pilot TV series in the works in conjunction with DoTheTon. Can't give away too much until it's actually produced. The street shots are a representation of what I experience - a vibrant and exciting Café scene here in Toronto.

You can view Mondo's complete Flickr gallery here. 

1977 Suzuki GT500

This all alloy beauty was built by Tim Hart and Paul Courbot from Titan Performance in the U.K. Titan specialize in building Suzuki 2-stroke café racers and café racers parts. This 1977 GT500 features a polished alloy TZ tank, polished alloy race seat, Titan Performance polished alloy 'S' logo rearsets and Titan polished stainless steel expansion chambers. The motor is basically stock apart from a little tidy up in the ports, 120 mains jets, cone filters and of course the pipes, which look they make a sublime sound. Tim told us the bike isn't quite finished yet. "As with all cafés it's undergoing constant mods and will soon have a smaller, neater polished alloy oil tank/battery box so we can do away with the huge standard one" Tim said. 

You can view some videos of Titan Performance racing their bikes at the Isle of Man TT this year and hear their pipes for yourself.

Honda CB750 Dunstall

We always love receiving motorcycles from our readers in far away places. This Honda CB750 café racer was built by engineering student Ilkka Töyli from Finland. The bike has an original Dunstall racing tank, clubman bars, Suzuki GT front end /w dual disc brakes, Dunstall rear sets, chromed swingarm and a seat built by Ilkka himself. "I also designed the Dunstall logo on the tank purposely to resemble the old Ducati double-line logo" he says. The bike took around 10 months to build and is Ilkka first ever bike – not bad for a poor engineering student.

 

Honda CB360T Café Racer

Rick Sanders started searching for a café racer donor bike at the beginning of 2010. "In the early spring I came across this red 1975 Honda CB360T bone stock, decent shape but not running, so on to the trailer it went" said Rick. You see Rick's usual ride is a BMW R1100, so when he took on this project he wasn't quite sure how it would turn out. "I'm no mechanic, but I can turn a wrench" he says. "Its amazing what people can create and conceive with motorcycles. Any café bike I was going to build was destined to have clip-ons or clubmans, so that became the starting point. Complete rewire of the front end, removed the gauges, bars, mirrors and turn signals. All that's left up front is the new headlight and re-designed tach. I wanted drum brakes, so off with the rotors, calipers, hydraulics and levers. Each drum brake has its own custom made brake stops and MSR adjustable levers. Bar-end mirrors and machined aluminum bar plugs finish off the clip-ons."

Rick had the front fork, engine covers and top fork clamps polished and shaved. Then he sent the rear fender support, kick stand, center stand, swing arm and fender brace off to the chrome shop. The custom anodized gold wheels were built by Buchanan - Sun rims 18 x 3 with SS spokes and nipples on fully polished Honda drums. The battery, tool and air boxes went to the resell pile. Two 32mm KN pod filters take up the space now along with a oil breather/collector system. The seat was rebuilt cafe style, which included an enclosed battery box, twin bob tail lights and rear sets by Raask. Thankfully not everything on the CB360 has been replaced. The tank, frame, engine and exhaust are all from the original bike.

Nearing completion of his project, Rick had one of the toughest tasks ahead of him - choosing a name. "It seems all special bikes bear a name sake" says Rick. "It took 3 months of pondering before the name "Red Bone" came to me during a ride. The year 1975 had many world turning events, but one that hit me was the end of the Vietnam War and I am a Vietnam Vet. I am the first son of an interracial marriage, between a black military solider and a white Canadian nurse, and that took a lot of courage back in 1955 - when America was still pulsing its segregation view points. Many white and black mixed Amerasian children were left behind after the US pulled out of southeast Asia. This not only occurred in Vietnam but in Thailand, Japan, Philippines and Korea. The term "Red Bone" was used to describe racially mixed children ever since the early slave days. Now I've built a half breed motorcycle. One half is Isle of Japan – building bikes for the world, and the other half is the Isle of Man – calling and thrashing for the streets of London, Berlin and Amsterdam."