Good question Andrew.I am afraid that I just couldn't part with it,sad I know.I have had it some years now,and if I can't ride it,I will polish it.Regrettably I do have form for having completely inappropriate motor bikes-thinking I am still in my late teens.Ha Ha,silly old git that I am. However,I do have a Triton up for sale on the Car and Classic website.
I know what you mean - it's called "growing old disgracefully"! Which one on that web site is yours (there are lots there)? PM me if you like. Andrew
This was my first cafe racer pictured in 1976, it was nearly 20 years old at the time. Cafe racers have been around a long time.
Leaning towards one for the garage when I have settled into this contracting lark. Just fancy having something for jeans and jacket rides on sunny days, but admit I have the same thoughts for a flat-tracker old style enduro bike too...
I love riding my little Honda. I made my own seat unit because I wanted to retain the comfort of the original seat. I covered the rear hump in suede. Most after market seats are about as comfortable as the 749 seat.
Slow is the new fast. Simple is the new hi tech. I recognise many of the comments on this thread......I think cafe racers are a great antidote to the trend of the last 30 years in motorcycle design and development (faster/more complex/more expensive/less rider involvement). I took the decision to replace my 955i Daytona (147bhp, sub 3s to 60 and 6.5s to 100....no rocket ship compared to a Pannigale, but no slouch either) with a BMW R1150R as my main ride and have not looked back. The Beemer is simple (air/oil cooled), comfy and punchy enough to stay ahead of 90% of traffic 90% of the time. A real do anything bike that will scratch, tour and handle all roads (inc forest trails)...what it lacks is the ability to get you quickly to license losing speeds (only 85bhp)...and for this I'm grateful (the Daytona was becoming a liability and the odds would eventually run out). I've recently supplemented the Beemer with a 900ss ie and this fills a gap for me (total cost for both was less than £4k)......but again, all the kicks on the SS are available at real world speeds which make you really appreciate the light weight, brilliant brakes (same as the Beemers BTW) and character from that aircooled engine without risking a spell in jail. Additionaly, I run a 71 Bantam and a 79 MZ TS250 (both rebuilt from boxes of bits).........and I reckon that the level of smile per cc on these two bikes (great for rural lanes of Leicestershire and Rutland) is by far the best of any bikes I've ever owned......a sunny Sunday poppin and bangin on the MZ with an open face helmet and jeans at speeds not that far above a modern carbon fibre road bike (and with brakes that are less effective...) is a slice of pure biking joy. Simplicity at its best. Key thing is that I can imagine modifying any of the above and stand a fighting chance of being able to do so in my shed. Perhaps I've just become an old fogey or perhaps there is a fundamental shift in our collective attitudes to bikes (and cafe racers represent part of this) but new 200bhp/190kg sports bikes now leave me utterly cold! .........on the other hand, that new Thruxton 1200R looks the absolute bollocks.......
I very much understand what you are saying GordonH. On a bad day I will think about the 'Rocketships' in my garage and wonder what on earth am I doing.I spend a fortune on insurance,servicing,and road tax.i do very little mileage,and when I do ride them I am not exactly using them to their full capability.Perhaps it is me trying to hold on to something which has now gone and I have yet to accept the situation as it is.I must admit,however, to getting quite excited whilst viewing some of the motorcycle porn that is out there
If you can afford it, and have the space for it, why shouldn't you be allowed to hold onto it? It's your stuff, you earned it and no one can tell you you have to either ride it or sell it. You do want you want with it, Merv
Hmm - ill probably get dragged through the coals on this but - no on multiple levels...I don't think ive seen any café racer that looks in any way comfortable....my mate right now is converting a scrambler to a café racer - I was over his place on Saturday night watching him parading round the kitchen with a quite frankly shocking crash helmet (one of those Bell style ones with the bubble visor things) - when he got the boots out I couldn't stop laughing...the jacket was just about acceptable... Just to add to this my guess is he's about 6'3 - and, his spine will be reshaped next year when we all go to the TT.... I might be 47 but my hypermotard 1100 evo sp does everything at a slower pace than my rsv4 but with a lot more fun. My z1ooo small, fat and stocky with a very low seat height, it has a lower ratio box so it can sit in top gear at 30mph quite happily. The only café racer ive seen that looks acceptable is this one....this is nice, but not nice enough for me to want to own it, or one.... But then...id just stick a straight set of bars on it...no more café racer
I bought this from my brother in law 40+ years ago as a box of bits. Put it together and rode it for a couple of years and then it lived unloved in the back of numerous sheds and garages. A couple of years ago he tried to buy it back but instead I decided to rebuild it. In its day it was good for 40mph at the most. It's not a cafe racer and I worked hard to make it look standard but it now has 4x the original power and can nudge 80mph even with my lard arse on it. It realy is a hoot to ride and gets as many admirers as the Ducati and MV when parked up
No, I don't think so for a couple of reasons. Demographics. What % of bikers are now over 50? I suspect it is enormous and this section of the population tends to have spare cash for another bike. They are on a nostalgia trip - it goes with the territory. And they have discovered that bhp does not equal fun. Are you really going to have more fun on a Panigale, knowing that you are exploiting a fraction of its considerable capabilities, or on a café racer whose capabilities you can get closer to using? And which looks cooler outside Bar Italia? Then you have increasing congestion and repression which is lowering average speeds even as bikes are becoming faster and faster. You either end up completely frustrated, or on track, or you buy something more in tune with the environment in which it is going to be ridden. I still love my 999 and wouldn't sell it, but my anxiety increases in direct proportion to the amount of fun I have when I'm riding it. I suspect that if I had an MHR Evo or an SC I'd probably do miles on that.
No nostalgia trip for me.... I like to stay reasonably current... While I'm not a fan of electronics I expect to own something eventually one day with an electronics package... Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
...I'm pretty impressed by fuel injection and electronic ignition.......another 30 years and I might be ok with traction control and multi ride modes......
Not sure I entirely approve of a lot of the electronics around now, especially now they're turning up on fairly modestly powered bikes that really shouldn't need them. Some of it is genuinely useful, like the lean-sensitive ABS which KTM brought out on the 1190 Adv which allows sudden braking when fully lent over without washing out the front end or snapping the bike upright. That's the kind of intervention that could save lives in an emergency such suddenly coming upon a car accident or a herd of cows round a blind bend. And I can see the need on supersports bikes like the 1199R and the R1M which are essentially track bikes which have very sophisticated and fully programmable electronics which have been designed to get the most out of the bike, not rein it in, but on most road bikes I think a lot of it just teaches people how not to ride. I've turned the MTC off on the 1290 because its too restrictive and annoying and apart from the big leap in power and midrange acceleration which suddenly appears because the TC isn't feathering the power, the most noticeable improvement is the restoration of feedback. I can feel what my input is actually doing. I can see how one day soon a custom-built pared-down cafe racer will be the only way to enjoy pure old-school riding where you actually feel fully in control of the bike. The more of the new breed of bikes I ride, the more my standard model SF begins to feel like an unadulterated cafe racer of old: taut handling, snorting engine, somewhere to sit and nothing else.
