Where’s The Bikes Come Monday?

Headed to the West Coast recently for our annual escape the winter and test ride new streetbikes week. The journey from Pittsburgh to L.A. was full of anticipation as team CRM relocated for the week in Agoura Hills, the hilly, arid region where endless paved canyon roads make for some of the best riding memories available. The machines we tested will appear in the magazine over the next few issues and two of our stalwart testers, Rob Bupp and Paul Rudolf, had yet to turn a wheel in this motorbiking paradise and came away duly impressed. During the weekend, the roads around the fabled Rock Store biker hang-out were chock-a-block with two-wheelers of every description and we even managed to photograph a couple of incredible cafe customs along the way. There were, in fact, so many riders cranking along the canyons that we wondered whether So Cal truly was the one place in the U.S. where motorcycle enthusiasts rode their bikes all year rather than just on weekends which is very often the case.

Well, Monday morning put paid to that theory as the five of us were taken aback by the sheer lack of two-wheelers to be seen anywhere but along L.SA.’s hideously clogged freeways. Though California leads the nation in motorcycle registrations, we struggled to spot many streetbikes being ridden as transportation here on weekdays. Like everywhere else, you couldn’t miss the huge number of pick-up trucks plastered in Harley-Davidson bumper stickers and bloke walking around wearing T-shirts festooned with the logos of their favorite motorcycle brands and models, but it seems that even here, in our biking Mecca, commuting by motorcycle is just not the done thing. Some blame the cheap availability of $2 per gallon petrol while others claim that it’s virtually impossible to commute on a bike as only baggers and full dressers offer enough luggage capacity to make two-wheeled commuting worthwhile. Who knows- riders in Asian and European countries seem to find bikes just fine for everyday riding, a concept we Americans just can’t seem to grasp.

2016 Reader’s Ride-In Bike Show Is Go!

Recently confirmed is a new location and date for this summer’s must-see custom cafe racer show- the Cafe Racer Reader’s Ride-In Bike Show- our ninths- is set to roll on Saturday, August 13 at Sewickley, Pennsylvania’s War Memorial Park. The lush park setting will fill with some of the country’s top custom builds and this year, we’ve added a bobber category after witnessing the amazing field of un-sprung customs that rolled in last year. Prizes and awards will be presented to first and second place entries in six categories including; Best Japanese Cafe Racer, Best American/European cafe Racer, Best Bobber, Best Japanese Cafe Racer, Wildest Engineering, People’s Choice and Best in Show. The fun starts at 10 a.m. at the park, located on scenic Blackburn Road (next to the WMCA) and keep cranking’ until the trophy presentation at 3 p.m. Look for some tasty food trucks, new parts and accessories offerings from some nifty aftermarket providers, some incredible riding in the near vicinity and all your favorite faces from the pages of CRM.

Winter Projects Real and Imagined

Eve though we’ve experienced one of the mildest Novembers and, judging by the coming forecast, Decembers on record, this remains a time of year when the mind focuses on building more than riding. Most of the bikes in the CRM stable require end of season maintenance by now, having covered about 11,000 collective miles during the past eight months or so when the weather gradually became warmer. Some, like our 2015 Royal Enfield Continental GT are only in need of a basic service – you know, oil, valve adjustment, safety checks on all nuts, bolts and fasteners – while some of our other customized bikes will be in for some serious upgrades. Once such bike is a motorcycle that we didn’t even know ourselves to be in ownership of: a 1981 Yamaha XV 920 Virago. It came into our hands through sheer serendipity thanks to the generosity of Greg Hageman, the Iowa-cum-Florida custom builder who’s been featured on both Velocity’s Café Racer TV and on the cover of CRM not once but twice. Greg, for those not in the now, has made a cottage industry out of fettling and beautifying Yamaha’s long-running air-cooled V-twins, having perfected a sleek steel subframe and several other bespoke bits that transform the ugly ducklings into some of the most amazing café racers currently on the roads. Greg offered to create a unique Virago for us, built on the bones of this very tired-looking example and we’re pleased to announce the entire process- from initial tear-down to completed road test- will be featured in Café Racer magazine starting with the February/March, 2016 issue. We’ve cleaned out our shop’s spare arts shelves, shipping to Greg a host of long-unutilized bits including a hefty, 48mm Showa front end from a 2000 Ducati 996 track bike to a new Hagon monoshock and a set of Sudco’s 34mm Mikuni carbs and an old Yamaha Seca II rear wheel we picked up who knows where. The end result should be a real head-turner of custom café racer with the added punch of modern, superbike brakes and suspension. Want to see her in person? We’re planning a big reveal at our 2016 Reader’s Ride-In Custom Bike Show come August, so stay tuned.

– Mike Seate, editor, Dec. 2015

Jettas and Smokers

Sept. 24, 2015

An unusually warm fall in these parts has meant riding the regions many challenging backroads nearly every single day. The weather has been dry in addition to unseasonably warm, so the odometers are rolling like its mid-June in the CRM garage and we’re actually wearing out sets of tires on our fleet bikes (meant both as a noun and adjective here) like we seldom get to. Among the more memorable roads we’ve ridden as of late: Route 50 West from Bridgeville, PA. is a well-known motorcycle artery as it winds through Cecil and Washington County before feeding onto West Virginia’s undulating, asphalt roller coaster that is Route 88. This one winds its way through postcard farmland with amazing hairpin turns, quick sweepers that are a slice of two-wheeled heaven (if taken around 55-65 MPH: anything more and the suicidal deer can make life hazardous!) and pulls to a stop in scenic Olgebay Park in Wheeling, a great place to grab a bite before heading back to Pittsburgh. Many of the turns are fairly tight in radius and you seldom find your bike moving very fast so the route is a dream for vintage bikes that are comfortable in their engine’s torque-happy midrange. If you run, say, a British twin of the 1960s which doesn’t feel at home on the Interstates, roads like these are your cuppa.

With several colleges located along this route, I’ve been noticing an unusual number of youngsters driving extremely fast in Volkswagen Jettas- the diesel sedan seems to be the car of choice for a generation of go-getter twentysomethings and they’re nearly always being driven as if the owner has seen one too many Vin Diesel movies. The others vehicle that’s been making its collective presence known in recent months are oversized Dodge Ram pick-ups. Inevitably equipped with USNC stickers and loud, smoke-belching exhaust stacks and driven by a slight, twentysomething man with a backwards baseball cap, these jokers hiog the road and ride the rear wheel of our motorcycles as if to challenge us to a race through whatever twisty road we happen to be on, despite the scientifically-proven fact that four-wheel drive trucks, especially those equipped with tall profile tires and high-lift suspension systems don’t corner very well. This is a lesson these usually catch onto after we wick the throttle and zoom away, but damned if it isn’t growing annoying teaching this one ad nauseum. Oh well, at least the youngsters make riding interesting…

The Big Show

To say that we’re overwhelmed and truly stoked by the amazing number of custom cafe bikes and people who showed up last Sunday for our 8th Annual Reader’s Ride-In Bike Show would be an understatement. This was the first time we’d staged the event at our Sewickley HQ instead of at Mid-Ohio during AMA Vintage Days and to be honest, we were unsure whether we’d see three or four motorbikes come rolling in at most. Instead, the turnout was nothing short of gi-normous with all sorts of radical machines filling – more like overflowing- from our Beall Way address and onto the surrounding streets. Supportive, smiling and full of fun, the crowd truly cheered on each of the seven class winners who deserved all the credit they received and then some. We won’t ruin it by revealing too much in the way of visuals from the event as we’ve set aside a good ten pages in our upcoming October/November issue to cover this year’s blow-out. Thanks readers- you made this year’s show a real winner and we can’t wait to stage an even bigger, better event in 2016.

Steel City Mods vs. Rockers

Known as the mods and rockers rally that could, Pittsburgh’s vintage motorbike and scooter gathering has soldiered on despite crappy weather, venue changes and a local riding population only recently getting hip to the joys of classic machinery. This year’s edition should prove to be the biggest yet, so get off your butts and ride on over come Saturday, August 22.

Assumed Dangers

CRM pal, comedian and damned quick rider Alonzo Bodden has a bit he does about the strange phenomenon of non-motorcyclist’s bad habit of telling us creepy stories. “Why is it,” he asks, “that when people realize you ride a motorcycle, they feel the need to tell you the worst crash stories they can imagine?” His is a good question, one borne out recently during a ride along one of my favorite country roads. I headed up the traffic tangled Route 79 North from Sewickley about 40 miles to the Porterville-Prospect exit where the roads get interesting and the traffic thins out. It’s a eat place to get one’s two-wheeled groove on as PA. 528 runs alongside scenic Moraine State Park and its waterways, but just before running through the fast bits, I stopped at a local convenience store for a sports drink. About 12 ounces into my Powerade, a chap parks near to my bike and emerges from his car. He’s wearing enough camo to make him feel at home at a NATO live fire exercise and has what appears to be a handgun capable of slowing most armored fighting vehicles strapped to his belt. “That looks like one fast ‘sickle,” he says approaching my Norton. “The problem is,” he continues, “those things will kill you. Dead.” Now I’m in the mindset of having a nice, mind-clearing motorcycle experience, and, as non-riders never seem to realize, is not an activity that’s in any way enhanced by endless tales of death, dismemberment and other asphalt-inflicted mayhem. Nevertheless, my well-armed friend would not be deterred from the task at hand. “I saw a guy who was cut clean in half when he sped off his crotch rocker into the path of a big-ass semi truck,” he continued, before explaining in gruesome detail how many headless, limbless and, apparently luckless bikers he’s witnessed all coming to grief while attempting to enjoy the sport of motorcycle riding. After attempting, unsuccessfully, to deflect the course of this one-sided conversation several times, I offered back my own insight. “You know, lots of folks- about 35,000 every year- get offed by that high-velocity hole-puncher strapped to your belt, but I don’t really feel the need to remind you of how dangerous those things are,” I said. Being uninterested in the how’s and whys of an explanation, I promptly nicked the Norton to life, successfully drowning out the next round of two-wheeled horror stories. Ear plugs. In the future, I’ve got to start riding wearing ear plugs…

A Worthy Show-Off

While in New York City over the past weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting 20th Century Cycles, the well-stocked garage of cafe racer enthusiast and longtime bike rider Billy Joel. After spending a day catching up with Alex Puls, the main wrench and bike wrangler at the shop, he suggested we pay a visit to a rare, pop-up motorcycle museum located deep in the heart of the Big Apple’s financial district. Being distracted by the promise of tickets to Billy’s show that night at Madison Square Garden and the city’s voluminous supply of Irish pubs, I wasn’t exactly enthralled to wade into Midtown traffic to see someone’s motorcycle collection, but off we went. After spending a couple of hours at the pop-up, let me school yinz that this is a must see for anyone visiting the New York area before the show closes on July 18. Inside an abandoned, partially gutted space at 285 Madison Avenue rests what has to be the most incredible, jaw-dropping collection of 1970s Italian cafe racers yet to be displayed in one space. The bikes on show are all owned by one Stuart Parr who has dubbed his amazing, rolling portfolio Art of the Italian Two-Wheeler. If you’ve ever read about, lusted after or just plain fantasized about things fast, sleek and Mediterranean, this is the place for you; just about every historically significant Ducati, MV Agusta, Laverda and bikes of other unique livery are here for the senses, along with a small collection of books, memorabilia and bike-nut items to make your day. Viewed up-close, the slender, wasp-waisted Ducati Supersports are almost feminine in their minimalist beauty while the racy lines and still-outstanding technology that went into these machines is unlike anything ever to grace a two-wheeler.

Wall panels throughout the broad, spacious room explain how Italy led the forefront of motorcycle design during the 1970s and the small production numbers and intricate attention to hand-crafted detail that makes bikes like, say, a Laverda SFC so special lay the era out fully. The massing of this many special motorbikes in one arena was a great idea to attract New York’s tourists and it was fun to watch men drag their significant others into the room which few of them expected to find in an area filled with posh retail shops and touristy restaurants. If there’s a toy box of the gods, this is a close as it gets.

The Show Must Go On

After seven years staging our annual Readers’ Ride-In Bike Show at Mid-Ohio during the AMA’s Vintage Days celebration we’ve decided it’s time for some changes: come Sunday, August 23, we’re moving the massive custom café racer show to our own headquarters.

That’s right, this year’s show will take place at 605 Beall Way in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, home to our editorial offices, workshop, brain trust and man cave extraordinaire. Years of lugging tons of magazines, DVDs, T-shirts and custom motorbikes halfway across Ohio have taken its toll, and after countless requests from you, our faithful readers, for a custom bike show in the Pittsburgh area, the new location is upon us.

The show will be familiar to anyone who has attended our previous shin-digs in Ohio (or briefly, in Los Angeles): expect a laid-back afternoon on tap with mind-blowing motorsickles, groovy rockabilly tunes and trophies awarded in the following categories:

Best Japanese Café Racer

Best American/European Café Racer

Best British Café Racer

Wildest Engineering

People’s Choice

Best in Show

This is no uptight, concourse de arrogance event where contestants get their underdrawers in a bind over niggling details such as who used the most paste polish or whose chrome fenders were the most original. Just show up on your running custom ton-up bike, check out some machines from the “Café Racer” and “Naked Speed” TV series, grab a cold (or warm ) one and have fun

Better yet, our event falls on the same weekend as Pittsburgh’s Steel City Mods vs Rockers event in nearby Millvale, so it’s a great opportunity to see two bitchin’ shows in one weekend. Check this site in the days to come for more details, directions and we look forward to seeing you there.

Getting Up To Speed

It’s a funny thing how rusty we can get at motorbike riding after a few months off for winter. Team CRM traveled to the west coast in January to dust off our riding skills and catch some much-needed sunlight, but after the brutal winter we experienced, we find ourselves not nearly as fast as we were at the end of last season. That should come as no surprise as everything from our reaction time to several sets of motorbiking muscles have dulled somewhat in the interim. Personally, I’m pushing myself to ride my stationary bike more to strengthen leg muscles while wasting no time in compiling road miles as the weather here in Western Pennsyltucky is simply gorgeous, warm and very much bike friendly. I’m stiff and a little sore after the first few 200-mile journeys of the season, but, as they used to say in cowboy movies after a long, cattle drive it’s a good kind of tired. I recently enjoyed a ride with CRM contributor Rob Bupp who has done a bang-up job of customizing a 1980s Honda CB 1100 (which will be featured as soon as the perfectionist Bupp is finished) and the half-day excursion was a blast as we both began to enjoy the twists and turns of some nearby switchbacks. Yes, we twisted some serious throttle, but there’s still plenty of grit and gravel in the corners and intersections to watch out for and potholes galore. Nevertheless, as spring progresses, riding begins to feel more second nature and our road speeds gradually increase along with our confidence. This would be a perfect time to schedule in a track day, as a day of riding with no traffic hassles and speed limits can bring out the best in our riding abilities. If you’re just getting back into the swing of things, remember to tae you time, watch for dirty road conditions and remember that nearly everyone traveling in a four-wheeler is focused on their smartphone and not on folks riding streetbikes. Good luck and have a safe season.

Lights, Camera…Constantly Ringing Phone

With the inaugural season of Velocity’s “Naked Speed” now airing in re-runs, there’s a palpable sense of relaxation around these parts. Though a new season’s programs seem to pass by in a very hectic six-week flash, planning, producing, filming editing and later, completing all the post-production work it requires to crate a modern, high-definition TV series is a ton of work for a great many people. Those folks who have struggled for the better part of a year to make cable TV’s only motorcycle series a reality breath a well-deserved sigh of relief when the series has aired without a glitch. After more than 15 years in the TV industry, it’s still a sizeable mind-boggler to find hw little the general public understands about how much actual physical work is necessary t make a show like “Café Racer” or “Naked Speed,” a success. For example, people commonly approach my wife to ask about the show and one comment in particular makes us chuckle each time we think of it. A viewer entered her work office asking about “her husband’s motorcycle show” and had a pressing question; “when Mike’s on camera talking, who’s holding the camera?” he wanted to know. That was a strange one, as if the viewer imagined that I and I alone, was responsible for every single production element of the show, from filming interviews, lighting the individual sets, feeding the builders and, apparently, performing my own camera work. Another element of the two Velocity series that a great many punters imagine hat I handle is the al-important work of casting. While it’s flattering to ascertain the level of sheer, unbridled enthusiasm that viewers have for “Naked Speed” a great many assume that blagging a spot on a television series is as easy as approaching someone who works in the field and demanding one. Ah, if only this were true. Closer to the truth, obtaining a chance to appear on the show and building a motorcycle is a long, complex process that, like all professional media, has an intricate system of checks and balances in place to ensure everything goes smoothly. Instead, folks who have never built a custom streetbike in their lives call and e-mail daily asking- and too often demanding- a slot on the show. Some punters have asked whether they can get a shot at being on the series because they have a sexy, stripper girlfriend who always wanted to be famous, but there’s enough shows offering those kinds of people instant fame already….Then there’s the aftermarket parts suppliers who offer up their manufacturing sites, showrooms and even their family homes for location shots.

I wish it were quite that simple, but it’s not down to me but a decision made by the casting producers at Discovery Network who, in all but a few cases, decide whose smiling faces and greasy hands appear on the tube. There are others who are confused about the lag time between when the TV show airs and when it’s made. Often, when or crews are visiting a particular town, other custom builders we’ve met (and sometimes those we haven’t) will call ad ask why we can’t make a stop by their shop that same day or week to film their latest café build as well. It’s as if they image we’re some instant news team who can instantly change course to cover “breaking news” of anyone spinning a wrench nearby. Instead, we’re allocated time and money to cover a specific number of custom builds per season (typically 10 to 12) which have been screened, checked out and approved by people wearing expensive suits in towering offices somewhere far, far away. That may not sound very grass-roots and accessible, but TV never really was. That by no means is to suggest that we at CRM don’t want to hear about your latest custom builds- it’s the bread and butter of what we do and seeing what shadetree mechanics can create is what makes running custom motorbike magazine such a blast. But when it comes to “Naked Speed” well, don’t say we didn’t warn ya!

First Rides of (Almost) Spring

After what the record books will surely note as the coldest winter in decades, Mr. Sol is again making an appearance, prompting much giddiness and expectation around the CRM garage. This is an odd time of year to go tearing up the local roads- and I say local as road conditions are just too potentially dangerous to travel far afield. There’s enough salt and gravel on Western Pennsylvania’s blacktop to scare an Abrams tank driver and woe be to they unfortunate enough to drop a front wheel into one of our countless potholes, some of which are large and deep enough to qualify for their own zip codes. Nevertheless, we’re stepping into our windproof riding gear and revving up some engines that haven’t seen much action since we saw 55 degrees on Christmas Eve, 2014. After a short blast yesterday aboard our Swap Meet Special Suzuki GS 750, we were alarmed to find how much salt-based corrosion we found on some of the motorcycle’s exposed aluminum bits. This stuff is seriously bad for any un-painted or non-chromed metal, so if you, like us, can’t quite wait for spring to spin your wheels, we strongly advise washing down your machine the moment you return home from even the briefest rides. A quick soap and water wash, followed by liberal dousing with a light oil such as WD 40- and be careful to avoid brake rotors, exhaust and other sensitive areas – is a no-brainer. Besides that, experience has taught us to avoid twisty, mountain roads in areas where there’s still snow in higher elevations. These undulating switchbacks can hide ice, both of the traditional and black varieties, even while flat roads on lower elevations are clean and dry. Be safe and have fun.

– Mike Seate

Café Racer Blog – February 3, 2015

Yesterday, we were riding through the Santa Monica Mountains, strafing canyons, exploring inconceivable lean angles and basically enjoying a week in sunny So Cal. The trip to test ride, photograph and generally soak in the West Coast streetbike scene has become an annual journey for team CRM and this year, what with Pittsburgh experiencing one ball-shriveling, frost-biting winter, was a joy. Besides riding the curve-ripe Mulholland Highway every day, we ventured further afield to Newhall, where custom builder Dustin Kott joined us for some seriously quick riding along the fabled Angeles Crest Highway. This stretch of snaky asphalt is known to local riders as “the fast road,” and for god reason; offering a deep contrast to the 50-60 MPH hairpins ands-turns of roads between Agoura Hills and Malibu, these canyons offer smooth, high-speed sweepers where you can pull over and catch sight of sportbikers going at it full-throttle. Canyon riding is an amazing and highly specialized discipline as most of the riders we spoke with confessed to preferring specific roads which they ride again and again, several times each day to get their kicks. There is not necessarily a game of pure horsepower as it is impeccable knowledge of each successive twist, turn and undulation in the pavement. We watched gape-jawed as a pair of hepcats on Harleys blasted past a fairly competent guy on a BMW sport-touring rig – all while dressed in skateboard sneakers, flannel shirts and plenty of attitude. Later, while parked up at the Big Oaks biker bar, we joined the regulars for a feet-up viewing session of the varied and amazing bikes catapulting themselves along the road. These was a sleek, black Norton Commando decked out in Dunstall fairings and making pretty rapid progress through the twisties and pack after pack of GSX-R riders, supermoto racers and folk aboard muddy little dual-purpose bikes al going far faster than we thought possible. Watching folks have this much fun on two wheel is just what we winter-stalled journos needed to feel alive (and thawed) again.
The day’s star attraction, however, proved to be this nutter who was riding the ever-loving nut off a Yamaha R6. This kid- and judging from the flexibility he displayed couldn’t have been more tha 25 – was working his bike around the corner at a velocity that would have impressed Marc Marquez. In fact, it appeared that the current Moto GP Champ had clearly affected this rider’s psyche as he wowed the crowd with elbow-down cornering not once, but 23 times before common sense or a realization of his own mortality kicked in. The assembled crowd of old school Hog riders, touring bikes and everyone in between stood up from their easy chairs at the Big Oaks outdoor dining room and issued a well-deserved standing ovation, but Mr. Elbows Down was long since gone.

Rockers VS Mods 2014

The nation’s longest-running Rockers VS Mods event is not the incredible yearly soiree in Chicago- now known as Motoblot- but the Sand Diego RVM. This year’s shindig starts on Friday, January 23 and runs full throttle for the entire weekend. CRM will be on hand to check out the latest in So Cal custom motorbikes, shooting pics and picking up a pint during Friday night’s kick-off event at the Til Two Club on El Cajon Boulevard. Saturday’s party shakes and bakes at the Lemon Grove VFW Hall while Sunday’s big event starts at 8.m. at Hooley’s Rancho San Diego Town Center over on Jamacha Road in El Cajon where a bike ride and custom show takes place. be there or be square. www.tonup-sd.com has more.

Live Long and Ride On

The news from the feds is good, for a change. No, make that great as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just reported a 6.4 percent decline in fatalities among motorcyclists during 2013. there were 4,668 motorcycle fatalities in 2013 vs. 4,986 in 2012 and 4,630 fatalities in 2011. The group of states without universal helmet laws reported 11 times as many unhelmeted motorcyclist fatalities than states with such laws: 1,704 vs. 150, respectively, the agency noted. As anyone who reads CRM knows, we’re true believers in the effectiveness of motorcycle helmets, having had our collective hides saved more times than our emergency room docs can count by the incredible bean covers.

Motorcycle-related deaths accounted for 14.3 percent of all traffic deaths in 2013, down from 14.8 percent in 2012. But it’s still higher than it was back in 2003, when motorcycle deaths accounted for 9 percent of all traffic fatalities.

In addition to fewer of us getting croaked while enjoying our fave sport/hobby/lifestyle, the number of riders getting seriously injured while two-wheeling has also dipped, down to 88,000 from a walloping 93,000 back in 2012. When it comes to attributing factors to this spate of positive news, things get a bit more cloudy. The anti-helmet crowd will claim the declining casualty numbers are proof that motorcycle helmets are useless, while others will cits the increased number of rider training programs around the country, the advent of anti-lock braking systems or even improvements to riding gear technology.

Whatever the case, NHTSA’s numbers are cause for both celebration and proof that we can do even better if we try. Better yet, it seems that alcohol-impaired motorcycle fatalities dropped as well. “Motorcycle riders showed the greatest decrease in the number of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes from 2012 to 2013, dropping 8.3 percent or by 117 riders. This was both the greatest percentage drop and the greatest drop in actual alcohol-impaired drivers,” NHTSA said.

Stay sober. Wear a helmet. Arrive alive. Makes perfect sense.

– Mike Seate

Naked Speed On The Horizon

Keeping various media cats in their respective bags is a vain endeavor these days, so let it be known that the new season of Cafe Racer TV is nearly upon us. We’ve been hinting at the release date of the fifth season of the global hit Discovery Velocity series in Cafe Racer magazine for several issues, and it’s been only recently that we’ve been permitted to detail the when and how of the new season. It looks like six all-new, one-hour episodes of the show will begin airing on Wednesday, January 28 at 10 p.m., following the car rebuild series “Wheeler Dealers.” Yep, we’re dovetailing on the back of Velocity’s most popular series as the suits at Discovery feel the re-formatted series is fielding its strongest episodes yet. If you’re programming your DVR to record new “Cafe Racer” TV episodes, however, you’re unlikely to find any on the old cable menu. That’s because the show has been re-named “Naked Speed,” a decision the folks at TDC feel more comprehensively covers the overall concept of fast, stripped-down streetbikes. Rest assured, the new title doesn’t mean the riders, builders or hosts will be appearing on-camera sans leathers- though I wouldn’t put such a show past craven TV producers- but it does leave the series open to all sorts of machines, from bobbers to streetfighters and motorbikes that defy classification. After having spent the better part of the year on the road filming the new show, I can say the new season holds some incredible stories of the two-wheeled variety, as the selected teams of custom motorcycle builders represent just about every style of quick, unique streetbike currently being built. I’ll be joined by a genuine talent, hot road master-turned cafe racer enthusiast Bryan Fuller who will, be appearing in each episode, lending his skills, insights and unique approach to the process. Fuller must be the luckiest S.O.B. on the planet, having scored a pristine Vincent Rapide last fall for a fraction of the current going price. These bikes are rarer than honest politicians and just as expensive to buy, and I’m willing to bet the Vinny will end up benefiting from Fuller’s skilled hands in the months to come. Fuller has also organized a few open launch parties for the new season of “Naked Speed,” the first to be held at his Atlanta garage on January 22 with events in Dallas and Portland, Oregon to follow (there’s more info at www.fullermoto.com) We may even stage a shindig at our Sewickley, PA. HQ if we receive enough response. In the meantime, we’ll be posting some video clips from the new season shortly so stay tuned.

End of Season Ride

With the extended weather forecast calling for the sort of weather that made the Battle of the Bulge so much fun, this, the first couple of weeks of November are a time to hustle. The daytime highs in this part of Pennsylvania soared into the high 60s several times, prompting the crew at CRM to scramble to the garage and roll out our fleet of bikes for what could be the last time in a long time. Riding is precious this time of year as our winters are positively Arctic in their intensity. Ah, but with Sol beaming in the fall sky, we headed out for a god 400-mile, two-day excursion that, hopefully will stick with us for months. The roads are clear, especially on Sundays in fall as everyone in these parts who owns a TV is glued to the weekly Steeler game- that mean local backroads are eerily, post-apocalyptic zombie movie empty. Oddly, though, few of us ride as hard in November than we do in, say the heat of July. Maybe it’s because the bikes are in need of end-of-season maintenance or maybe it’s the slightly creepy, ominous feeling we get knowing there’s whitetail deer lurking around every blind corner. Nevertheless, twisting the throttle, taking in the leaves and digging on the crisp air makes for some of the best riding to be had. There’s a slight sense of panic as bikes that have been ignored or under-utilized all year are suddenly rolled out for a final burn-up. We promise ourselves to keep a better, more detailed log of what bike got ridden when and for how far next season, while cursing ourselves for wasting the odd sunny afternoon working on the next issue (there’s always another!) Matters not – peeling through the curves, revving the old British twins until they roar – is the best psychological reset button ever devised.

Most of the other riders we encounter seem surprised and pleased to see anyone still riding this late in the year as lots of bikers tend to ride only when the mercury is well above 70, their bikes shoved away in a corner of the garage until next summer. When we stopped for a post-ride beer, several people asked how we could endure the cold and continue riding in November, but truth be told, some of us will keep at it – in small, commuter rides, that is – well until the snow starts to fall.

Global Custom Market

‘Tis a fascinating and strange time to be in the market for custom cafe racer parts. Or parts for just about any type of personalized vehicle. Thanks to the wonder/curse that is the Internerd, builders can source parts from places around the globe that were previously unavailable to average punters. Well, punters without the craving for endless travel…Case in point: we’re slowly amassing parts to build a complete 1959 Norton Dominator a motorcycle for which even reproduction parts are scarcer than honest politicians. Short of visiting a swap meet (aka autojumble in Brit-speak) finding bits for 1950s Nortons previously involved scouring dusty old bike shops operated by equally dusty old gents who, typically, would just as soon sit on their stashes of rare British bike parts until the Grim Reaper collected them than sell them off.  Ah, but enter the 21st Century global marketplace. Today, we can search through several electronic pages full of all we’d ever need to make the dream of owning a vintage Dommie a roaring, oil-seeping reality. We’ve found everything from hand-made fenders, fuel tanks, tank badges, groovy old front fender license plates – affectionately called “pedestrian slicers” by mischiveous Rockers- and even a set of those oddball, torpedo-shaped, art deco Norton mufflers. At small specialty shops here in the States, we’ve located lots of parts made in Mexico and Central America that make breathing life back into ancient Britbikes a breeze, and laying them all out on the floor of our workshop reveals just how quickly we can acheive our goals. When building our first Triton cafe racers back in 19945, the parts-gathering took over a year- today, we ca expect to cut that by 3/4, easily.

The Chinese are cranking our plastic retro headlamps that cost a fraction of what you’d pay for an original, though some readers have warned us that the quality of some so-called bargain parts can be questionable at best. I guess it’s all part of an emerging parts aftermarket that’s destined to change the nature of what bits a builder can get their hands on and which bikes remain rusty piles forever. Whatever the case, we’re glad to see some many options available. Build a Vincent from scratch, anyone?

Open Mike Blog – Sept. 23, 2014

Funny how with the leaves here in Western Pennsylvania just beginning their fall color show, how precious riding becomes. When you live and ride in a state where the riding season is limited by Ma Nature’s whims, the realization that you’ve only got a few weeks left to do the crazy throttle twisting thang really hits home. The impending four or five months of cold, wet or worse yet, snowy roads means we’re hustling like an eight-armed juggler to fit in all the road testing, product evaluations and fun we can before the defecation hits the rotary oscillator, so to speak. This time of year, however, does yield some incredible riding. For instance, on Sundays, while just about every other living soul in the region is glued to their TV sets for football games, the roads are very much wide open with even the State P0-Po absorbed in the Steelers, leaving speed-crazed petrolheads free to enjoy unbridled thrust. The coming winter also means we’re eager to get back at some of our long-term project bikes, which have been ridden hard and put away covered in bugs since spring. Next issue (Dec./Jan., 2014) one of those very bikes, our 1978 Suzuki GS 750E should be reaching running condition and we’re eager to air the fully-rebuilt four out while there’s still time. This is the same GS that was “customized” during the “$1,00 Build-Off Challenge” episode of Velocity’s Cafe Racer TV back in 2010 and the changes the old girl endured were nothing short of amazing.