Or Glory - 21st Century Rockers

A few years ago renowned German photographer Horst A. Friedrichs released a stunning book on Mods called I’m One: 21st Century Mods. Thanks to Friedrichs amazing photography, the book quickly became an international best-seller. Now he has recently launched the Rocker version, titled Or Glory - 21st Century Rockers. The book features ton-up boys and Rockers from around the world – and of course many classic café racers. For a hard cover book of this calibre we were pleasantly surprised to discover it retails for a reasonable $23 on Amazon. [Spotted on Southsiders MC]

Honda JX110 Café Racer

Up until now we had never heard of a Honda JX110 – probably because it's most commonly found in Thailand. In Thailand there are various models of 110-125cc Honda Motorcycles including cb, jx, cg and gl models. Almost every models use the same frames and engines, but have minor differences like fuel tanks, seats and shock absorbers. This model is a 1981 Honda jx110 and has been turned into a Norton Manx styled café racer by Thai resident Torsak. "My dream motorcycle is a racing-style one with long fuel tank and single seat like former British café racer" Torsak said. "I spent 6 months modifying the whole bodywork except the frame and engine. The work includes a set of Yamaha vr150 shock absorber system and disc brake, change front-wheel and back-wheel size from 17 inch to 18 inch by using vintage D.I.D.'s wheel aluminium rims, the front tire is a Dunlop F11 and the rear tire is a classic Dunlop TT100GP. Fuel tank is from Custom House Stinky in Japan, rearsets from Yoshimura and the headlamp is from Vintage Bike UK .The seat, exhaust and front-back mudguards were all hand made."

Torsak has done a marvelous job creating this stunning little cafe racer. Also have a feeling Torsak may have read our 'Shoot your Bike' article – impressive shots as well.

 

Mooneyes Swap Meet

These stunning photographs were recently captured at the 2010 Mooneyes motorcycle swap meet in Odaiba,Tokyo. Taken by the 'Shimoyama Brothers' from Japan who have an amazing collection of photos on their Flickr page. I particularly love the Ducati shot with that beautiful fairing – would be keen to see more pictures of this exquisite café racer.

Icon Snakecharmer

When it comes to creativity, Icon are the leaders of the pack. Not only in their helmet and bike designs, but also in their press releases and photography. This is how Icon's talented Design Director Kurt Walter describes their latest project - the 'dirty cafe racer':

She wanted me dead, that was clear. I could come up with no other reasoning for why she conducted herself in such a hostile manner. With her carbon cans barking like a tortured lap dog the Snakecharmer was hellbound on delivering pain. And not the kind of pain that you just walk off. No, she wanted to deliver the kind of pain that burns for weeks. Where every shower is a constant reminder of your failures. The kind of pain that forces you to sleep on your stomach eschewing blanket or even sheet. The type of pain that your wife not only doesn't care about, but actively mocks. And who could blame her?

She was a bike built for a different age. An age before drug resistant infections and air quality standards. Powered by the finest premix technology a 1979 Yamaha corporation had to offer, she was both reckless and beautiful. A homogenized concoction of 400cc bits from the entire Hamamatsu product line. RD400 top, XS400 front, YZ400 rear, IT400 middle. Much like Cher, she was an intoxicating half-breed. The result of an ill-conceived tryst between a street racing father and hare & hound mother. She was in two words - a Dirty Cafe. 

With a 'choose your own adventure'  illustration for a paint job she would rule the gravel strewn grounds of the north Portland Container Yards. Spewing both rock and fuel in an unfettered rage against the injustice of all things pure. Her mechanical malevolence was magnificent. And then, without fanfare or ballyhoo,  she sputtered and died. No dramatic fireball, no gasping seizure of piston or rod - just the slightest of backfires and then silence. Some say it was a fouled plug, others, that she was just too beautiful to live. Whatever the reason, the Charmer's flailing heart had finally stopped. Her dirt encrusted carapace is now enshrined amongst the rafters of the Slabtown whisketeria, where she looks down longingly on the drunken patrons. Even in her misted cylinder sleep she appears tense and brooding. The Snakecharmer was handsome killer - plain and simple. 

Honda CB450 Phil Little Racing

Spotted this stunning Honda CB450 café racer on Kneeslider the other day. The bike was built by Philip Little and was actually started many years ago. "I started this 1972 CB-450 café in 2003" Phil says. "It was to be a showcase bike for my CR450 body kit and hard parts. The bike's completion, in 2010, came after the CR450 product line was purchased by Robert Ward of Concord, CA". "The nice thing about this CR kit is that Honda CB/CL450 and others like the CB/CL 350/360s, need no or very little modification. Builders do not have to pull engines or paint frames. The kit is pretty much a simple bolt-on project. I went beyond what a normal owner would do with; the red frame (Ford High Performance Red), colored engine and prettied-up wheels. I think the magic of this project was the overall color balancing. The color scheme was stolen from Honda's early race bikes. On its first public showing, the bike won Best in Class at a Minnesota VJMC meet in 2010. The bike now (7/1/10) has about 2 miles on it. I guarantee you that 3 years from now it will only have 150 miles. I don't ride much (too busy in the shop) so if you want to own this puppy, you could offer me $4950 and it could be yours". That sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and the color combination is second to none. Check out the full spec list of this mouth watering CB450 on Phil Little Racing.

 

Kawasaki KZ1000 Café Racer

After yesterday's 'Mad Kwak' article I thought it was appropriate to feature this monoshock Kawasaki green KZ1000 café racer which was recently a finalist on Do the Ton for 'Bike of the Month'. Built by 'backyard builder' Andrew Lakowicz who told us "the bike was actually given to me by a relative, it had about 60,000 miles on it and was in a very rough shape". Andrew did everything on this bike himself, including all the welding which he learned during the process. He is far from finished though, and already has a list of changes for his bespoke creation. "I actually just finished taking the swingarm off, as I am going to redo it. I am not too happy with the way it looks. My first stab at it was really an exercise in design and function, now I want to make it look more aesthetically pleasing". The bike is well documented in it's many stages, with numerous build threads (one, two, three, four, five, and six) on Do The Ton, showing how Andrew transformed this vintage bike into a beautiful monoshock café racer.

Build Specs:
Airtech solo seat
Removed battery box ETC... and relocated all electronics to custom made tray under the set
Bobbed front fender
Woodcraft Clip-Ons
Kawasaki lime green paint throughtout
KZ1000 LTD speedo
V&H down pipe with custom made splitter and two Dyna mufflers
Repainted wheels
Painted calipers front and rear
Cat eye rear tailight with custom fabbed mounting
Emgo pods, rejetted running 125 mains and 20 pilots, with needles at their stock setting.

Joe's V Cycle Café Racers

Joe from Joe's V Cycle was employed in the airline industry for most of his career as a Lead Aircraft Technician. After numerous years maintaining and rebuilding Boeing and Airbus engines, Joe now spends his time building and restoring classic motorcycles. These beautiful bikes are just a taste of his recent handy work. The stunning blue Ducati is a 1966 Monza 250 and the green Honda is a 1972 cb750. "The Ducati and the CB750 were built this winter over about a 6 month period. Both were total overhauls with both engine and frame suspension plus all the custom work and parts. All the work was done in house except for powder coating and cad plating" says Joe. It's definitely worth checking out Joe's custom and restoration galleries. 

Honda CB50J Café Racer

This beautiful little CB50J café racer was built by a Dutchman named Michel. Like many men before him, he realized he didn't like the look of his stock Honda CB50J, so decided to turn it into a café racer. The jewel in the crown was finding that stunning NOS candy gold gas tank with black stripes. This vintage gas tank came new in a box from Honda spare parts specialist CMS in the Netherlands. Michel then painted a modified cafe seat to match the candy gold gas tank. Some other specs include "rearshocks were replaced with 30cm shocks and the forklegs were shortened 4cm by Ronald. The top tripple tree is from a SS50M, the headlight bucket from a Dax and the headlight ears from Takegawa. Clip-ons were favoured instead of the ordinary holders and handlebars. The wheels are equipped with Michelin M29 tyres, 2.25 front and 2.75 rear. The polished 50cc engine has an advancing flywheel, CB50F camshaft and a larger carb with velocity stack". Overall a very fine example of a small displacement vintage cafe racer. [Via Chalopy]

RSD KTM Café Racer

Roland Sands Design (RSD) recently posted these 'almost finished' pics of their latest creation on their site – the classic paint job is yet to be done. Turning a KTM 530 into a café racer might not be the most practical build, but I do love the look of it. The bike has the very distinctive RSD styling but the one thing I personaly don't like is the left-over KTM plastic underneath the new gas tank. Here's what RSD say about the bike: "What started life as a 530 Motocross bike was transformed into a no frills mid way custom somewhere between a café racer, a super single and a motocross bike. We always anticipated taking this project further and now that time has come. Welcome to flavor country my friends, welcome to the modern day café racer... We had the chance to rip it up on this KTM on the streets of Willow. The bike is super fun to ride, it’s light, agile, torquey and stylish. It does everything you want a good road bike to do….it just does it better". Check out the build vids and more photos here.