Cafe Style

The latest issue of Cycle World features cafe racers as their main focus. Eric Bostrom, along with his brother Torsten and Lossa Engineering, put together a Kawasaki cafe racer project that was a tribute to Gary Nixon. It's one helluva motor scooter as you can see from the photo. It's powered by a later model 1000 four cyclinder rather than the three cylinder 750 that Nixon raced (see the August 29 post) but it's got the mid to late 70's look to it. I like the blacked out look of everything on the motor and frame. It really makes the wheels and sheet metal stand out.

I came across this one at Bike EXIF. This was kind of what I was thinking when I was talking about painting the frame silver on my 900. The color scheme here is something definitely to my liking. A motorcycle does not have to have a black frame. This one's a product of Spirit of the Seventies. Since I'm trying to capture the very same spirit, it's probably more than just mere coincidence that I dig this one. There are several more really nice builds on their web site but this is definitely my favorite. They've got a commission to build an old 1000 Kaw like mine. It should be a dandy from what they say they're planning.

And then there's this. Gold Mags, braced swingarm, Rickman frame. The real deal racer set-up. Appearance wise, if you put lights on it it would be more cafe style than Superbike but now we're talking. I'm thinking a little more hot rod/hooligan than this but this I like. A lot. I found this at Mighty Motor, by the way. Lots of cool stuff there and great photographs of same.

So now I've got some more ideas to toss around/incorporate/steal for my project. Surprisingly enough, however, after looking at these and the rest in the Cycle World, I'm pretty well sold on the direction I want to go. I've still got to make a phone call to check on something before I'm locked in but if that pans out, it'll be all systems go.