How does a motorcycle achieve cult status such as that enjoyed by the BMW R100 café racer? In any of its many stock forms, the R100 was always a perfect example of purpose in design. Its elegance only elevated that purpose, with a level of refinement that few of its competitors could match. In competent hands, it could keep up…
The nineT genes are dating back from the 90 years of 20th century. BMW followed the concept of designing a great motorcycle for all those fans of the custom bikes.It seems that through the development focus was placed on enabling riders to modify the bike up to their own taste. The ability to customize the BMW R nine T is…
Nowadays pure electric vehicles share 66% of the global EV market. Sales growing faster than you can imagine.Every specific market has very different powertrain preferences which influenced the existence of so many different models with different performance and potential. International motorcycle sales are also trying to meet this tendency. So the results are companies such as Zero Motorcycles, Lightning, Brutus,…
Honda turned the motorcycle world upside down in 1969 with the 740-4, but it’s a little known fact that Kawasaki had been developing their own version, almost along a parallel time scale. However, as a result of being pipped to the post, they delayed the launch until the bike could be upgraded to a 900, which upon its release in…
Relying on their dominance of the 2-stroke market with a range of smoking twins and triples, Suzuki realized that in order to stay in the race they needed to throw themselves headfirst into the big bore 4-stroke market. Their first entry was the GS750, which was an instant hit with both riders and motorcycle testers on both sides of the…
Thanks to clever editing and large budgets, TV programs that involve customizing motorcycles often make it look devilishly simple. But not everyone knows one end of an angle grinder from another (ouch), and in those particular cases riders tend to keep an eye open for a Modern New Cafe Racer. Customized bikes are cool though, end of. But let’s be…
The very first Honda CB500 rolled off the production line in Japan in 1971 to great acclaim. Physically smaller and lighter than its 750cc big brother, the bike did everything well and in 1973, in the hands of ace racer Bill Smith, took first place in the grueling 500cc TT Production Race. Urban legend has it, that the CB in…
Yamaha’s XS850 finally ended its production run in 1981 and although it may not have set the world on fire, it certainly made enough firm friends on both sides of the Atlantic to be sadly missed. More refined than a twin but lighter than a four, triple cylinder engines in both 2- stroke and 4-stroke configurations had been pushing bikes…
The history of the Yamaha XS 650 is pretty well documented, and although the statuesquely proportioned parallel twin engine is used in almost every kind of custom imaginable, the bike transforms so well into a Café Racer, perhaps Yamaha should have done it themselves. So without further ado, let’s look at probably the best-looking Yamaha XS650 Café Racer in the…