As a lot of regular readers may know, my first real love is old aircooled 2 strokes (see my original 2 Stroke Biker Blog). In the world of Yamaha RD’s this one is a real beauty. A perfect balance of traditional RD mods mixed with some great custom touches (those brakes in particular). I’m on an RZ and an H1 now but I really need to get back on an aircooled 400 again. Just something about them. Congrats to Damon on this beautiful ride.
Marc Crocetti sent in some extra pics and some background info for his Triumph 500 (that I originally grabbed from Facebook).
I am attaching some pictures of my 1971 Triumph 500 Cafe racer. I purchased the bike in several boxes, ( It had been used as a dirt bike for twenty years) and made it into my idea of a Cafe style bike. It is the first bike I have ever done and it has been a lot of fun. It took me about 5 months to build and I enjoy riding it a lot. It has been running for two years and I have put about 9,000 miles on it.
Thanks, Marc Crocetti
Thanks Marc! Great stuff and nice save!
Marc Crocetti posted this beautiful 1971 Triumph 500 Cafe racer on the Facebook page. Thought I’d post it here for those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook.
Reader Bruce Reed sends in this cool 1980 kz440. “We built from frame to paint here in our little garage”.
Great Stuff!
I’ve always thought the big thumper enduro bikes had a lot of potential as cafe builds. I’m seeing more of them lately.
This one is from Mark Asproyerakas: I replied to another post of a KLR café photo. Thought you would like to see mine. If you want to post go ahead. I can give details of all the bikes features.
Mark
Great Stuff! Must be great in the “urban jungle”.
Regular contributor Chuck Lathe from North Carolina was kind enough to grab some shots of this modded Goldwing. I’ve always liked these builds. A lot of folks don’t know that the original Goldwings were intended as performance bikes and they only became tourers when folks started setting them up that way.
Just noticed the wwwwiiiide handlebars! Jebus!
Thanks again Chuck!
Mike Soteros Sends these in. Continuing proof that you don’t need big bucks to build cool bikes.
A fw folks were asking in the comments about the location of Iron Spade Cycles. I found this on a forum:
Hey guys, my name is Travis and I am the sole owner of Iron Spade Cycles here in Port Lavaca TX. I specialize in building cafe racers, street trackers and drag bikes from vintage British and Japanese makes. I tend to build only the bikes I would ride personally so I feel I’ve done most of my clients justice in building the perfect example of their expectations.
Travis Lawson (who’s bikes have been on these pages before) sends in his latest build! Outstanding!
Steve, here are a few pictures I took this morning about a half hour before my client came to pick up his bike. It’s a 1973 Honda CB350F with 5800 original miles on the clocks. It was in pretty rough shape when I started the project back around Christmas of last year, but the end result was worth the wait. Damn near every part on this bike has been touched in some way to make it better. A laundry list of parts were stripped, powder coated and or painted while others were polished or replaced. Rough estimates of weight saved from parts cut off or omitted is about 55lbs. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary to make the bike run, it was removed to save weight. The engine was left basically stock other than the hand made exhaust canister, the Dyna-S ignition and the pod air cleaners. We did bump up the jetting for the increased airflow but that is about it. I know these little bikes can go 100K miles with regular maintenance but any major mods would only hurt the longevity so we stripped her of excess weight instead. Just this morning I stretched her legs and ran up to 105 MPH before shutting her down to take these pictures. Pretty impressive considering I’m 6’2″ and 260lbs. My client is a bit younger, 75 lbs lighter and in much better shape than I am, he should have a ball riding her around the coastal area where he lives.
Anyway I just thought you’d enjoy these pictures. Now I’m back to focusing on another client’s cafe project, a 1979 Kawasaki KZ650 with a Wiseco 810cc big bore kit. Those pictures will be in a few weeks. Talk soon Travis
Mike Sternick from New Jersey sends in this cool budget beater build… I love bikes like this. More proof that you don’t need deep pockets to ride a cool bike! Nicely done!
Mike writes in:
Greetings ,
It was a $500.00 beater with potential.You don’t see to many GS’s cafe’d out.All new bearings and seals front to rear.Seat, cowl (battery box) and taillight made in house.
Works performance did the shocks and fork springs.Kerker header with a supertrapp exhaust from the junkyard.Fuse box and electronics are behind screen.Out of all the tanks I tried the stock tank had the best balance.The carbs and harness were a bitch,took a month to sort.That which doesn’t kill us makes us better fabricators.It now rides and runs great.Love your rag.
Cheers
Mike Sternick
I check my site stats every so often to see what the trends and such are and for a year or so now this is always THE bike that is the most viewed… and often by a comfortable margin. I suppose that there are some message boards out there that are linking all over it. Vincents, Broughs, Ducatis, Brittens… all fall behind to this admittedly cool little rocket ship that trumps them all! Well here she is again! Enjoy and thanks again for stopping by!
Motorcycle Photo Of The Day 