Khris and I had to make a run up to our storage facility. We stopped by a coffee house so he could get something to drink. We talked about ‘this, that, and the other thing’ until we were buckled up in his van and on our merry way. Khris says to me, “Dude, I just bought another bike.” I’m looking at him in shock. Khris hadn’t had a bike in a while and although I am in between bikes myself, I’m happy that one of us had a ride. Obviously, I am anxious to find out what he’d spend a grip on so I asked him, “What’dya get?” He says, “I bought a café racer”. Ok, I knew what a café racer was. I just wanted to know his reasoning for purchasing a bike like that. He says, “I have it parked in the back of my crib. You wanna check it out?” Is that a trick question? “Hell yea I want to check it out.” So we drive through an alley on Capitol Hill and pulled into his drive port. When I saw the bike, I immediately thought, “Damn, I’ve gotta get one of these”. But before I would make a move I wanted to know what was the reasoning behind purchasing a café racer rather than, say a Yamaha R1 or Suzuki GSXR 1000. We spoke about it and exchanged notes and thoughts. I’m going to buy a café racer soon. This is our reasoning…
That style of bike is historic. British and Japanese Café racers, Vintage Racers, Rockers and Tonup bikes are what the bad bays back in the day use to ride before people were riding choppers. They were built for one rider. People use to race them on the street and dirt tracks. More importantly, it’s not the type of bike that you see every single day. You can buy a gixxer 1000 and put $5,000 to $10,000 dollars worth of custom parts to it but it’s still going to be a gixxer 1000. It’s the same bike that everyone and their momma had. No matter how you fix it up, it’s still not unique. Now don’t get it twisted, I still want both the R1 and the Gixxer 1000 in my arsenal. I just think that having a different style of bike is a welcome addition. CORSA is going to get into vintage styled clothing. Khris said that when he rides the bike around Capitol Hill, the older white dudes are pointing at him and giving him the thumbs up. It’s nostalgic to them. Perhaps some remember riding a similar bike when they were younger. Maybe memories of leather jackets, white t-shirts, boots, Marlboro or Camel cigarettes start to resurface. Whatever the case may be, you’ll see me this upcoming summer cruising the area from time to time in my racer. I wouldn’t define my new style as "Retro". I’d say its more like "Retro-Active".
-P
Khris' Yamaha Cafe Racer
For more information about Cafe Racers, Check out these sites...
www.caferacer.net
www.cb750cafe.com
www.mycaferacer.com
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