cafe racer

  • Café Racers en Continent

    Café Racers en Continent

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    The 2019 Café Racer Festival at Montlhéry was the seventh iteration of this event and it keeps getting better, says Ian Woolley. It is a magical melange of motorcycles, music, and track rides… Motorcycles come from many genres, many generations and include modern manufactures who bring fleets of their latest offerings for you to try…

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  • Café Racer Montlhéry Festival

    Café Racer Montlhéry Festival

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    Hardcore classic bike enthusiasts, 21st century café racer aficionados and retro roadster riders converge on the historic Montlhéry circuit to make the most of the massive café racer festival. Frank Melling took his own Manx Norton along to ride in the wheeltracks of champions… Battling down the Paris-Orleans expressway, nose to tail with kamikaze French…

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  • Custom Classics

    Custom Classics

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    Cut-back bobbers and café racers have become a common sight on the classic bike scene, with key styling cues being adopted by mainstream manufacturers. Which means the modified bikes are going to even greater extremes. Bob Pickett argues that it is possible to over-egg this particular pudding. Cat, meet pigeons… Bike Shed’ s annual custom…

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  • Triumph Trident Café Racer

    Triumph Trident Café Racer

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    If you want to strip down a Hinckley triple to reveal its raw power, then you can buy special café racer kits where someone else has planned the build and sourced the components on your behalf. Or you can make it up as you go along – and create something completely unique at minimal expense……

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  • Honda Black Bomber

    Honda Black Bomber

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    In 1968 Soichiro Honda rode his firm’s 10 millionth motorcycle off the production line. That bike was the ground-breaking CB450 Black Bomber – notable not least for its use of novel valvegear with torsion-bars ‘springs’ in its top end. It wasn’t long before racers transformed the CB streetbike into a world class competitor, and the…

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  • Wheels & Waves

    Wheels & Waves

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    Mix together motorcycles, music and all manner of laid-back leisure activities. Locate the resulting five-day festival on the French / Spanish border, and you’ve got a recipe for success. So says Ian Woolley, who had a whale of a time… This year’s W&W event was the sixth, although in many ways ‘event’ is too small…

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  • Café Racer Festival

    Café Racer Festival

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    RC regular Ian Woolley found himself short of reading matter, and this minor crisis somehow led him to Montlhéry in June, surrounded by all manner of customised classic bikes. Old skool café racers and trad Tritons took to the track alongside new wave brats, bobbers and street-trackers. Here, then, are the highlights… One of my…

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  • CZ Café Racer

    CZ Café Racer

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    The Ceska zbrojovka company began building CZ motorcycles in 1935, was nationalised in 1946, merged with JAWA in 1948, enjoyed massive success in the 1950s, 60s and 70s in ISDT, motocross and enduro competition, and became a subsidiary of Cagiva in 1992. Cagiva’s scheme was to build new versions of CZ and JAWA models, and…

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  • Cafe racer kits for Hinckley triples

    Cafe racer kits for Hinckley triples

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    How to transform an old Hinckley triple into a rapid café racer, no spannering skills required. Don’t do it yourself – let an expert take the strain… After years of restoring classics and building specials, Ian at Café Racer Kits found a simple way to share his experience and expertise. CRK started offering modular kits…

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