The Ace Cafe, located in London’s Ace Corner, North Circular Road Stonebridge, is one of the most concurred reunion points by Cafe Racer enthusiasts. It reunited about one thousand bikes in the early 60’s welcoming visitors 24 hours a day.
Cafe Racer enthusiasts arrived around eight o’clock, waiting for the clock to mark midnight so they would clear the street and get ready for the burn-ups all the way to the Bussy Bee, another biking culture icon located twelve miles away from ACE on Watford. There were times in which they decided to ride their Cafe Racer jewels to Club 59. Along with jukeboxes, a new activity was born, it consisted on putting a record on, get on the bike, ride a pre-established course and return to the bar before the song was over. This open-street course consisted of typically three to four miles, including bridges, intersections and curves making it really hard to complete due to the cars, pedestrians or anything that could get in your way while accelerating to full throttle. In order to complete the course, the rider would have to maintain an average speed of 68 MPH, giving these daredevils an adrenaline rush that few could handle.
The typical Cafe Racer was either a mono or twin cylinder between 500cc. and 850cc. –needless to say that they all were made in Britain- some examples of such bikes are: Matchless G12 CSR and G15; Norton Atlas, Dominator and 650SS; Royal Enfield Super Meteor, Constellation and Continental; Triumph Trophy and Bonneville; BSA Lightning, Spitfire, Shooting Star, Super Rocket and Thunderbolt; Velocette Venom and Viper Clubman; Vincent Grey Flash an so on.
Although the above mentioned bikes are icons nowadays, there is no doubt that the true pioneer of them all is the BSA Gold Star –its DBD34 Clubman version is any collector’s dream and represents the quintessential Cafe Racer- which basic concept dated back to the early 30’s. Amongst the best manufacturers we can mention are: Eddie Dow (Gold Star) or the Rickman brothers Don and Derek Rickman (Metisse chassis builders for the Bultaco Pursang), who created the first Tribsa back in 1959, after putting together a Triumph motor and a BSA chassis.
The British motorcycle manufacturers had to keep the pace on the ever-growing Cafe Racer market, hence, they built the Royal Enfield Continental GT and the always beautiful Velocette Thruxton Venom, but they would pay a high price for not being aggressive enough as it took them a decade to launch such models. Something that Japanese maker Honda was going to take advantage of introducing the CB 750, a modern, reliable, safe, and well-equipped tour-cylinder machine.
The last expression of the Cafe Racer culture was the Norton John Player with its huge white body and black exhaust. Although Britain claims to be the place where the movement began, this did not prevented Italian makers to grab a piece of the market by introducing the Ducati 750. Cafe Racer and Harley-Davidson are also related in Harley Davidson’s most sporting bike in its history, the XLCR 1000, a monument with seductive lines derived from the Sportster.
What started as a reunion amongst some friends that preferred a power bike that suited better for their highways and country roads, has become part of not only European culture, but part of the motorcycling history of the twentieth century post WWII.
For more information on Ace Cafe and Cafe Racer you can log on to:
http://www.acecafela.net
http://www.caferacer.net
Cafe Racer enthusiasts arrived around eight o’clock, waiting for the clock to mark midnight so they would clear the street and get ready for the burn-ups all the way to the Bussy Bee, another biking culture icon located twelve miles away from ACE on Watford. There were times in which they decided to ride their Cafe Racer jewels to Club 59. Along with jukeboxes, a new activity was born, it consisted on putting a record on, get on the bike, ride a pre-established course and return to the bar before the song was over. This open-street course consisted of typically three to four miles, including bridges, intersections and curves making it really hard to complete due to the cars, pedestrians or anything that could get in your way while accelerating to full throttle. In order to complete the course, the rider would have to maintain an average speed of 68 MPH, giving these daredevils an adrenaline rush that few could handle.
The typical Cafe Racer was either a mono or twin cylinder between 500cc. and 850cc. –needless to say that they all were made in Britain- some examples of such bikes are: Matchless G12 CSR and G15; Norton Atlas, Dominator and 650SS; Royal Enfield Super Meteor, Constellation and Continental; Triumph Trophy and Bonneville; BSA Lightning, Spitfire, Shooting Star, Super Rocket and Thunderbolt; Velocette Venom and Viper Clubman; Vincent Grey Flash an so on.
Although the above mentioned bikes are icons nowadays, there is no doubt that the true pioneer of them all is the BSA Gold Star –its DBD34 Clubman version is any collector’s dream and represents the quintessential Cafe Racer- which basic concept dated back to the early 30’s. Amongst the best manufacturers we can mention are: Eddie Dow (Gold Star) or the Rickman brothers Don and Derek Rickman (Metisse chassis builders for the Bultaco Pursang), who created the first Tribsa back in 1959, after putting together a Triumph motor and a BSA chassis.
The British motorcycle manufacturers had to keep the pace on the ever-growing Cafe Racer market, hence, they built the Royal Enfield Continental GT and the always beautiful Velocette Thruxton Venom, but they would pay a high price for not being aggressive enough as it took them a decade to launch such models. Something that Japanese maker Honda was going to take advantage of introducing the CB 750, a modern, reliable, safe, and well-equipped tour-cylinder machine.
The last expression of the Cafe Racer culture was the Norton John Player with its huge white body and black exhaust. Although Britain claims to be the place where the movement began, this did not prevented Italian makers to grab a piece of the market by introducing the Ducati 750. Cafe Racer and Harley-Davidson are also related in Harley Davidson’s most sporting bike in its history, the XLCR 1000, a monument with seductive lines derived from the Sportster.
What started as a reunion amongst some friends that preferred a power bike that suited better for their highways and country roads, has become part of not only European culture, but part of the motorcycling history of the twentieth century post WWII.
For more information on Ace Cafe and Cafe Racer you can log on to:
http://www.acecafela.net
http://www.caferacer.net