Getting older isn’t always the easiest of experiences, but there are certainly advantages to amassing a few decades on this planet. I’m old enough to recall a less-enlightened age when many of my fellow Americans sincerely believed ourselves to be the only denizens of this globe capable of great mechanical craftsmanship. Growing up…

  Recovering this month from some fairly extensive surgery on my banged-up kick start foot has left me lots of time for catching up. And not just on much-needed sleep and a few good books, but on my list of places to go once I’m all recovered and healthy in a couple of months. In…

  Few feature bikes in the 14-year history of this magazine have garnered the sort of universal praise and admiration of our current cover bike. The one-of-a-kind Yamaha R1 cafe racer designed by Chicago’s Rob Cantanese and Union, Illinois’ Framecrafters is that rare combination of exceedingly great design and serious, no-bullshit performance. In each and…

It’s been a whirlwind year for test riding motorbikes at Cafe Racer magazine with new streetbikes being served up nearly monthly by the major manufacturers. It’s one area of producing this bi-monthly magazine that’s good for both the readers and our mortal souls as flying to So Cal, mounting up on a half dozen or…

    While Italy just wrapped up their annual EICMA motorcycle industry showcase, England’s NEC Show unfolded with its share of surprises for the two-wheeled fraternity this past week. Chief among the jolts of great news concerning the United Kingdom’s burgeoning motorcycle industry is the re-emergence of BSA, a vaunted brand that’s been dormant since…

It’s been a good five plus years since the TV series known as Cafe Racer wrapped its last episode on Discovery’s Velocity motorsports network. Much has changed since then, with teh global cafe racer phenomenon only moving from strength to strength as more riders, builders and manufacturers feed energy into the ton-up motorcycle genre. We…

  The era of classic British transport cafes is often romanticized on this side of the pond and for good reason. The roadside eateries were among the few places where the original Ton-Up boys and girls could congregate in a very uptight mid-century England and the high-speed antics that took place on the adjacent roads…

We’ve written extensively about the re-birth of the Norton Motorcycles Company, featuring their Donnington Park production facility on the cover of Cafe Racer’s 7th issue. After test riding their 961 Commandos several times and finding the air-cooled retros to be quick, well-styled machines, we figured all was well with the re-born British brand. However, just…

  Back when I was a yoof, my bedroom walls were plastered with images from my favorite motorcycle magazines. Anytime I encountered a particularly sharp image of a new bike or one of those cheesy Dave Mann centerfolds popular in the pages of “Easyriders” magazine, out came the box of thumb tacks and onto the…