Why A Cafe' Bike?

Ok, so out of all the possible motorcycles to work on or restore, why did I choose do a Cafe' conversion/restoration?  Some of you are probably wondering what a Cafe' bike is.  If you thought of it as a motorcycle to ride to a Cafe' you are partially correct.

An extremely brief history is the bikes came to be called Cafe' or Cafe' racers because a few gear heads back in the 50's and 60's decided to take their every day motorcycle and style them after the GP racing bikes of the era.  They would race each other around the streets of London from one cafe' to the next.  The most famous hangout for these "rockers" was the Ace Cafe in London England.  The challenge was to put a song on the jukebox, hop on your bike and race along the streets to try to make it back to the cafe' before the song was over.  Along the way they would try to hit 100 MPH which was called "the Ton".  Doing "the Ton" meant hitting that speed during your ride.  So, picture the American Icon James Dean with an open face racing helmet, goggles and a tricked out motorcycle and you have an idea of the genre that is the cafe' bike and racer.

Cafe' racer in front of the Ace Cafe' in London.

Modifications were made to these bikes essentially for a reason, not just for looks.  The handlebars were replaced with clip ons or "clubman" style with brought the rider forward and lower over the fuel tank.  The foot pegs and foot controls were moved back to allow the riders legs to sit farther behind him/her to completed the crouched position.  These controls are called "rear sets".  Finally, the most distinctive feature is the seat.  There are many styles taken from a basic narrow, light weight seat and pan that moves the riders' rear rend back to also facilitate a lower profile.  Utimately the idea was to save weight, improve handling and aerodynamics so as to "do the Ton".  Some bikes would also have a small fairing on the front.

Common bikes in England during the heyday were BSA's, Norton's, Triumph, BMW's and a few Japanese bikes.  Today those same makes are very popular for converting to cafe' style.  Among the Japanese brands, Honda twin and four cyclinder models of the late sixties and seventies are very popular.  The most common Honda is the venerable CB750.  To get a good idea of a man living the "rocker" lifestyle and who specializes in CB750 cafe' conversions, go visit Steve "Carpy" Carpenter's website at http://www.cb750cafe.com/.

After doing a lot of surfing the internet and learning about the cafe' racer I decided that the style would be very cool to do in a restoration/build project.  I had to figure out which motorcycle would be a good one to do such a project with and after some deliberation and months of looking on Craigslist, I found the CB175 to be a good size bike for what I wanted to do.  So, to frame the scope of the project, I wanted a smaller frame twin cylinder bike that had plentiful parts available and was easier to work on.  I didn't want to get too far over my head with this being my first attempt at any type of motorcycle build whatsoever.  The 175 fit the bill perfectly.  Finally, I wasn't interested in racing the bike like some vintage restorers/racers do with their cafe' bikes and I wanted to keep the frame unmolested so as to return the bike to stock condition as a selling point in the future.

One of Carpy's bikes from CB750cafe.com.

A sweet Cafe' conversion.

Next post I'll be discussing some of the design concepts and details of the build that I hope to accomplish with this bike.  In the meantime I am having a blast researching other folks' projects online and in many forums to get some ideas and how to implement them.