"We were in love with speed," said one old Rocker. "Our life was bikes, burning and birds."
-By David Edwards
They’re old now. Or dead. But 50 summers ago, in England, they laid down blueprints for the sportbikes that some 125,000 of you will buy this year. They were called Rockers for the new style of music they listened to, or Ton-Up Boys for the top-speed highway burn-offs they engaged in. Stu Savory, a Velocette Clubman rider who back in the day hung out at the famous Ace Café on London’s North Circular Road, explains the drill: “This was before the days of the blanket 70-mph speed limit. Doing the Ton, 100 mph, was in! The Ace was famous for ‘record racing.’ Put a coin in the jukebox, select the Animals’ ‘House of the Rising Sun,’ jump on the bike, blast down the bypass to the roundabout and back before the record ended, averaging the Ton.”
American moto-journalist John Covington was fascinated by the scene, still going strong in the late Sixties when he dropped in.
“They don’t do the Ton on a race course or a flat stretch of country road,” he wrote in Cycle magazine. “Likely as not, they do it on the North Circular Road or the Watford Bypass or the M1 expressway. They don’t do the Ton in broad daylight when there’s no traffic and the pavement is dry. They do it at night, when challenged to a burn-off. The air will be damp and the high-beam won’t be good for more than 60 mph and there will be trucks and cars of all sizes on the road. And that, mate, is when you do the Ton.”
Early café-racers were a British invention and used combinations of engines and frames from home-market bikes. Later came Japanese bikes such as the Honda CB750, which responded well to the café treatment.
Stock bikes were no good for this sort of thing, plus new ones were too expensive for teenagers and 20-somethings, so Rockers built their own, often from scrapyard beaters.
“First to go are the standard handlebars, which are replaced by clip-ons,” noted Covington. “Racing-type tank and seat are next, then come modifications to the exhaust system, plus new paint and other minor decorating. The Rockers strive for a racer image, and so rarely hang superfluous goodies all over the machine.” The ideal was to find a gutted Norton Featherbed frame (geometry so good it was copied for decades) and stuff it full of hopped-up 650cc Triumph motor. Top off the resulting “Triton” with an aluminum gas tank, monster front brake, alloy rims and premium rubber, and you had the ultimate café-racer, an appealing mix of speed and style—in effect, the world’s first sportbike.
The term was at first derogatory, bestowed by older riders dismissing these young turks of the tarmac and their lashed-together machines as barely being able to get from one transport café to another. The local authorities also took a dim view of Rockers, who favored black-leather jackets and jackboots, and traveled in packs. Much like American hot-rodders in the Fifties, chopper riders in the Seventies and urban street-racers and stunters today, they were subject to being hassled at any time—though a rundown of their crimes suggests a certain period quaintness.
An English newspaper report from 1961 tells of police swooping down on the Ace Café and rounding up 100 Rockers, guilty of atrocities ranging from “insulting behavior” to “jeering at passing motorists” to the unbelievably heinous “indulging in horseplay.”
Everything's Ace: Originally just a cheap decorating trick, black and white checkerboards are now synonymous with café-racers.
Harry Martin, 18, was one of the perps. “We were arrested for the simple reason that we wear leather jackets,” he protested. “People are always blaming us for causing trouble, but we keep to ourselves and the Ace is our café. All the boys and girls get down there to see the bikes, and it’s the done thing for the lads to do a bit of a ‘flash turn’ when coming into the car park. There’s bound to be a bit of noise, but no rowdiness.”
Martin was fined £5 for his indiscretions, and with the others was back at the Ace the next night.
Just like blue jeans and leather jackets, that kind of rebelliousness never goes out of style (thank goodness), and café-racers still look good today, as evidenced by Steve “Carpy”Carpenter’s Rocker-style sohc Honda CB750 (above), which, he says, “snaps more heads than a cordless screwdriver on steroids.” His Southern California shop, Nostalgia Speed & Cycle has turned out about 20 examples so far, and demand is growing.
Why not? One old Rocker explained the attraction, just as viable now as then. “We were in love with speed,” he said. “Our life was bikes, burning and birds.”
Cheers, mates. Next pint’s on us.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Cafe Nation.
From Cycle World:
I'll see you at the Ace-San Francisco.
From Yelp.com:
"After being abandoned for nearly ten years, The Ace Cafe San Francisco has been reincarnated as a bare-bones biker bar with motorcycle racing on all of the TVs. It features an extensive collection of beer on tap and in bottles, in addition to premium wine (sorry, no hard liquor now, and I know that some of you might be skeptical of a wine rack in a biker bar, but bear with me here). There's a pool table and a jukebox that's full of your hard rock, metal, and punk favorites, as well as a kitchen serving sausages, barbecue, and chili."
Neighborhood: The Mission
1799 Mission St
at 14th St
(between 14th St & Erie St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
The best of both worlds: The Norton Kawasaki Cafe Racer.
From (again!) The Kneeslider
"Look at the cafe racer here and you think, another nice old Norton or Triton, until you look closer and see an engine with Kawasaki on the side. Look closer still and you find a front fork from a Suzuki GSX-R400, a Suzuki GT750 front brake and a Kawasaki H2 rear hub, plus a big helping of self made pieces that look rather nice.
Phil Klawsuc, over in the U.K., had a 1968 Kawasaki W2 twin carb engine which he thought would go just right with a Norton featherbed frame, but he wanted it to run like a more modern bike while keeping the vintage look. The Kawasaki W1 and W2 were very British looking motorcycles to begin with but this is taking the look to a whole different level. Any cafe racer like this will take a bit of engineering to make the parts come together right but I think he did a superb job.
This is just another one of those motorcycles that will drive the purists crazy, cafe racers are supposed to be British and all that, but if you ask me, I think it’s very cool.
Check out Classic Motorcycle Mechanics for a complete write up"
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Royal Enfield Bullet Electra Clubman.
From London bikers.com By Tasha Crook.
"The Electra Clubman is the latest in a long line of café racer styled machines from Royal Enfield’s UK distributor Watsonian Squire. This authentic-looking machine has been developed in their factory in the Heart of England to combine the look and sound of the classic cafe racers of the Sixties with the reliability and performance of a modern lean burn engine and, of course, the heritage of the Royal Enfield badge. At the heart of the Clubman is the proven all-aluminium 500cc single cylinder Electra engine that has amazed the press and owners alike with its incredible fuel economy (over 85 mpg is not unusual). The frame, gas filled rear shock absorbers and Avon Super Venom tyres also come from the standard road bike, as does the efficient 280mm single front disc brake.
However the Clubman looks as radically different from the road version as the original rockers’ machines because it boasts all of the ‘race specification’ parts of that era, the most striking of which is the 4.5-gallon polished aluminium tank, sandwiched between ‘ace’ bars and hand made fibreglass single seat unit. Rear-set footrests work with the low bars to push the riding position forward into a sportier attitude without sacrificing comfort or cramping the stance.
The upswept ‘Gold Star’ style silencer not only reinforces the classic racer image, it also allows the lean burn engine, (designed to help Royal Enfield meet stringent modern emissions controls), breathe more freely. Watsonian have also added discreet mini indicators, chrome mudguards and a more compact tail light assembly.
The Royal Enfield Bullet Electra Clubman sells for £4,599 on the road and the price includes a 12-month warranty.
Royal Enfield Electra Clubman Specifications:
• Engine – 499cc four-stroke single
• Bore and stroke – 84mm x 90mm
• Power – 27.5 BHP at 5500 rpm (approx)
• Fuel consumption (approx) – 87 mpg
• Ignition – electronic TCI
• Starter – electric and kick
• Transmission – 5 speed constant mesh
• Dimensions (LxWxH) – 2110 x 700 x 1067mm
• Fuel tank capacity – 4.5 gallons (approx)
• Suspension front – telescopic hydraulic fork
• Suspension rear – hydraulic dampers
• Front brake – single disc, 280mm diameter.
• Rear brake – 6-inch drum
• Weight – 165 Kg
• Seat height 82cm"
Thursday, August 23, 2007
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