The Cafe Racer Story

Cafe Racers started right here in Britain, in the Fifties, where hardship form II World War was slowly evading, Rock & Roll appeared and social values started to change.

Motorcycles were still common daily transport, even for families, with a side car outfit then later with the Microcars. More young people started to have the means to afford personal transportation, being an older bike or a younger scooter or perhaps a very old Austin Seven or Ford Y, good thing MOTs'(Road Worthiness Test, for those outside UK) hadn't come into force yet!

From this time, we started to see young bikers congregating together at greasy, lay-by Cafes that populated our roadsides, with a few equipped with the novelty of a Juke Box and a movement was born, bikes and Rock & Roll!

But old bikes were often what theses chaps and ladettes could afford, with new bikes still mostly out of reach so, how do we get an old bike to go faster? Exactly, remove all that is unnecessary, begin with the fat pillion!

In those days, any vehicle that could do 100mph was extraordinary, remember, the Jaguar XK120 born in 1948 was so called because it could attain 120mph, making it the fastest production automobile in the world! Later in Jabekke, it managed well over 140mph but with a blueprinted engine and some aerodynamic mods such as bubble canopy.

The Vincent Black Shadow was then the fastest production bike, with a potential for over 125 mph (200Km/h) and could do 0-60mph in less than 6.5 secs! But its price when new was proportionate with its qualities - high!

So, the real challenge for these lads was to get their home brewed bikes to over 100mph (160km/h) with some more or less successful home tuned engines, sometimes resulting in some spectacular blow-up doing the ton-up!

Some Cafes became notorious and quite famous in their own right, with Ace Cafe in North West London by the North Circular, revived few years ago by Mark Willsmore, the Busy Bee in Watford Junction, sadly no longer with us but revived now through a club and Johnson’s Cafe, on A20 in West Kingsdon, South East London, not far from Brands Hatch, where the lads got sometimes over excited and did some road racing on A20, on the way to the races!

Please click on the side buttons bellow for Ace Cafe, Busy Bee and Club 59 (with Father Bill Shergold, the ton-up vicar) for more stories.

One of my favourite stories is the one about putting a coin on the Ace's Jukebox and go for an impromptu road race on North Circular on a pre-set route, normally to Hanger Lane Junction (about 1 mile and a bit away) before it became the Gyratory System uniting A40, A406 and A4005 and see who would get back before the song ended! No mean feat as usually these rock n' roll songs played for less than 3 minutes! Apparently this impromptu race was started after a BBC producer had the idea for one of their documentaries about motorcycle youth groups and showed it on TV, which was immediately adopted by some daring bikers!

Thanks to these places, we had the Rockers with their Cafe Racers and the Mods with their Italian suits and Lambrettas with about a zillion mirrors!

History has recorded their famous seaside battles such as Brighton and Hastings, but in their own words, it was just the media making a fuss out of it! Quadrophenia film was shot in 1979 (with Sting no less) portraying these British youth sub-cultures. You will notice the ever-present Rockers black leather jackets, goggles and pudding helmets! Just like Ogri!

If you enjoy movies, don’t miss the experimental Tunnel of Love, with Eddie Kid guest appearance, a truly great short movie. Last time I saw it for sale was at Ace’s.

In the old days, a common way to build a Cafe Racer was to use a Norton featherbed frame, discarded by Formula Junior builders such as Cooper, as Norton would not supply its Manx 500 engine by itself and shove a Triumph engine to it. Triton was born sometime mid-Fifties and made famous by Dave Degens by winning the Barcelona 24h race in 1965 and later in 1970 and with it came all kind of fibreglass fuel tanks, fairings, tails, racy seats etc, rear sets, clip ons and for the better off, alloy tanks, alloy mudguards and other bolt on mods, all in attempt to emulate the era's racing bikes. Other configurations were attempted including, Tribsa, Norvin, Norbsa and all kinds of "Bitsas". Some builders got famous such as Dresda, Rickman, Metisse, Norvil, Dunstall, Rob North, Seeley, Gus Khun, etc, with their tailored kits and accessories.

Remember, at this time there were no speed limits on the Motorways, that came later, courtesy of some Ford chaps, Jack Sears and Peter Bolton testing a Daytona Cobra on the M1 at over 185mph and some journalist with nothing better to write about on the Sunday Times newspaper.

After all the fuss, 70mph limit was imposed in Britain, by Barbara Castle, Minister of Transport, in 1967. The 70mph is still with us today.

Nevertheless, the Metropolitan Police thought that a ton up on North Circular was a no-no, therefore they acquired a secret weapon, oh yes! A fleet of gleaming, very fast Daimler Darts, with special training given to police drivers at Hendon.

Hope you have enjoyed a bit of history and background on our passion!

For a bit more fun and insight, please use buttons bellow to take you to Wikipedia, Ace Cafe, Busy Bee and The 59 Club.

Cheerio!

Edgar

These cars were equipped with a 2.5 litre OHC, all alloy V8 with hemi heads, capable of 125 mph, developed by Edward Turner, yes the same from Triumph and Ariel fame, responsible for the Speed Twin. Ironic or what?

Eventually, the spirit died away, with Greasers coming on the scene by the end of Sixties. Ace Cafe closed its doors in 1969 and Rockers and Mods got married, jobs, families, a dog... leaving the Brighton and other seaside town battles well behind.

Fast forward to the present, we are living a revival of the scene, with major manufacturers taking a keen interest in this type of bike with Triumph Bonneville/Thruxton, Ducati GT/Paul Smart, Moto Guzzi, Voxan, Benelli and even Royal Enfield not discounting the Japanese offerings although more in line Street Fighter trend.

Ace Cafe was re opened by Mark Willsmore by the mid Nineties, initially through special meetings and later by fully opening the old building and has thriving presence in all things motoring, becoming rapidly the mecca for PetrolHeads.

Nowadays, we still follow the same process with all major British makes and other unconventional makes, such as BMW, Italian or Japanese bikes, as a base for a Cafe Racer and there's a huge range of companies dedicated to the Cafe Racer movement. Although it is not exactly cheap to have something stylish and reliable, you can use some ingenuity and do most of the work by yourself!

FlatRacer.com 2007Copyright

All rights reserved.