Awsome thread. I bought a Ducati Sport classic last year… i actually should have kept it !!!!!

Some lovely things on this thread… nice work.

I understand that they’re customs but is there a popular marketplace where second hand ones are sold?

there are a few forums. Do the ton is the main one I believe. Try this thread to begin with. http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?board=7.0

for some reason this does it for me!

Thanks Juan, funnily enough, clip ons are on order at the moment!

I bought mine as a rolling chassis and buckets of bits. It was a big jigsaw puzzle that started to get a bit expensive because it was missing lots of little bits, washers/ bolts etc but they are all special order and add up!

If i was doing it again i would buy a full runner and then customise it form there. Probably cheaper and easier in the long run.

Having said that, it was not hard. All doable if you are mechanically minded enough to build a mtb from scratch. My SR is a single so that makes it that much easier. 1 carb etc.

I did a lot of grinding, cutting, fabbing brackets the only bit i got a mate to do was weld a rear seat loop on.

I loved building it and cant wait to get stuck into another.

Do the Ton is a great forum for inspiration but tends to be mostly Honda CBs, there is an SR500 forum whicj is also good. Im sure there must be one for the BMWs, they seem a very popular cafe base.

It would look worse with a bastardised bandit IL4 in it so do it but do it properly and tasteful

Do the ton is a bit us-centric as a marketplace thanks. Very few Brit forums as far as I can see. Looks like its build one or pay a fortune.

Essentially yeah you either put the hard work in or you pull your wallet out to pay someone who has done the hard work for you. Although I wouldn’t call £5 grand a fortune for something that will make you grin ear to ear for years and is cheap to run :p.

Not sure if they sell whole bikes but have a browse around flatracer.com

Enjoying this thread and looking forward to build pics.

FWIW I rode an R600 to the IOM tt in the late 70’s from Aberdeen and it was ok but not exactly exciting!

I think the cafe racers look great though and it’s a cracking bike for a project and to simply enjoy riding AND keep your licence.

I’d love to build one but I know sweet FA about engines. Seems like its the bobber bikes rather than the cafe racers I likes. Shame the bonnevilles are so expensive.

Buy one and just keep removing bits ’till it stops.
Then replace the last bit you took off. 🙂

And I’m going to use this thread as an excuse to post these again:

Because I love Friedel Munch’s impossibility of a motorbike and that second picture always makes me laugh. 😀

here is some nice idea, saddly in French

The French have always had a bit of a ‘thing’ for Cafe Racers, eh?

🙂

http://www.eicma.it/en/news/new-boxer-bmw-in-2013-975.htm

lank45, where did you get those first pics you posted. i’d love to have a look at the site.

boxer metal on fb is good btw.

Mythic pic from edouard bracam…

I’m not normally in favour of capital punishment, but I could make an exception…..

Someone mention Guzzi caferacer 🙂

By far my two favourite project on CRC.
http://www.caferacerclub.org/t26519-sauvetage-xtx-660-yamaha-euuu-mbk
http://www.caferacerclub.org/t22787-zabel-700

druidh – Member
I’m not normally in favour of capital punishment, but I could make an exception…..

Sorry. I love that Ducati. Sorry.

I certainly burst out laughing at that one Rusty Spanner – absolute magic but there’s probably not many on here old enough to really appreciate it.

The cartoon? 🙂

It’s by Shobba – he used to do them for ‘Bike’ in the early 80’s:

Edit – the Duke is by JvB, not Lazareth – doh!

absolute magic but there’s probably not many on here old enough to really appreciate it.

That’s what you think…..

My favorite Shobba was always this one, always makes me chuckle

not quite chopped, but here’s a vincent my dad modded in the 60’s, i believe its in a norton (featherbed?)frame. sadly he sold it in 1971 or thereabouts when we moved to the south coast, for peanuts, and always wished he had’nt.

Oh god, that’s beautiful…… 😀

Love the tank indents for clip ons & that front drum is huuuuge.

Yeah looks like a featherbed frame. Supposedly the best or at least most acclaimed cafe style frame of the era? My dad says its the frame everyone wanted. And what better engine to have in it than a norton? :p

Isn’t that Ogri’s bike?

It kind of is Ogri’s as it’s a Norvin. Which is a custom of a Norton frame with a Vincent engine. Think Triton. Did anyone ever concoct a Norvil?

Norvil still exist as a manufacturer of brand new old style Commandos and Dommies.

I’m sure someone has stuck a Villiers engine in a Featherbed at sometime though, nowt so queer as folk 🙂

Owning one of these was a bit of a dream from when I was a kid. Only had it a year or so though, after 15 years away, I found I’d lost interest in bikes really..

Look at the length of that gear linkage 😯

That doesn’t work for me, sorry

a video

someone posted that vid earlier aye-aye but great watch none the less! 🙂

Ee,off down memory lane here. Shobba was funny but not a patch on Ogri. And remember Bloodrunners?

Anyroad up, I once *borrowed* a Triton for a little spin. That was an experience. I was used to Jap bikes so the controls were all arse about face. Plus all the rigamoarole of starting the bugger in the first place. And it was a unit Triumph engine in a pre-unit Featherbed frame. That was one loooooooong chain!

Rusty Spanner, that’s what I was thinking of. I guess there are some ‘Norvil’s’ on the trials scene as the villiers units are supremely popular, and Norton frame, just won’t be a featherbed frame though

I’m sure someone has put a villiers in a featherbred though.

N’owt as queer as folk, says he who dreams of getting his MZ back on the road. Must rescue it from my Dad’s garage first though.

Dickyboy. George, ever the showman, might even have approved of that one were he alive today.

I love MZ’s, proper motorbikes. 😀

Mate of mine had a TS250 with a sidecar made from an Asda trolley back in the 80’s, it was fantastic.

You know they race them, don’t you?

Or an MZ caff racer?

MrSparkle – Member
And remember Bloodrunners?

Certainly do.
I was a bit sniffy at first, didn’t really want a replacement for Ogri, but it grew on me.
And as to the Armageddon vs Hoover debate, dunno – Hoover was a very cool bike indeed:

🙂

“You know they race them, don’t you?”

Read “Stealing Speed” by Matt Oxley. Amazingly Radio 4 did a programme on this piece of history earlier in the year, called The Degner Defection. Suzuki would be nowhere without MZ.