Hello everyone from a newbie to the world of cafe racers.

Hi
I have recently had the idea to build myself a cafe racer. Its just an idea at the moment and I am looking for inspiration.

I have been riding for a few years and currently ride a Kawasaki ER6N.

I think the idea started after seeing a lovely Cafe racer on ebay a couple of weeks ago. Which funnily enough was a Kawsaki as well. I think it was a K something 750. Now I am under no illusion that I could buiid such a nice bike the first time around. But even that builder must have started some where.

So her is to the start of something (hopefully)

First off welcome, it's a good site with lots of friendly helpful people.

You need to lose the idea that cafe racers all have to be show winning examples of high-end engineering!

Remember where the idea originated in the 50's, it was our dads and uncles (or even grandads depending on your age) bored with the drab bikes their dads used during post-war austerity and trying to make them special. They took the old, plodding Triumphs, Nortons, BSAs, AJS's etc. and changed things around to make them stand out. They had limited resources and even smaller budgets, but they had inspiration from the very busy UK racing scene, much more prevalent than it is today.

Nowadays wannabe builders have access to a much wider range of bikes, bolt-ons and professional services. So no matter what level your skills you can build something special, it's what you put into it and get out of it that counts, and don't give a rat's arse about other people's opinions, the early cafe builders certainly didn't!

As for inspiration, take a look at some of the build threads on here:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (or the definitive "How to build a cafe racer'!)

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