Written by Manuel Garriga | 12th June 2018
In our Expert’s Choice feature, one of our in-house experts shares their favourite objects in auction. This week our motorcycles expert, Manuel Garriga, selects four of his favourite motorcycles from the special Café Racers Motorcycles auction (8th - 24th June).
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Motorcycle expert Manuel Garriga about the auction: “For this special auction we've gathered together ten machines that show different approaches to the café Racer style from Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands. It can be just aesthetic touches of paint and seat upholstery, but it's enough to turn a Yamaha XS 400, a Honda CB 500 or a Suzuki GS 550 into a much more attractive bike. In some cases the mods also include improved carburetion and exhaust systems.”
1. Yamaha XS 650
The café racer school covers various trends, and racing has a long tradition. Here we have one of the most valuable pieces in this auction, a 1970s model. This stunning Yamaha XS 650 is fully restored adopting the Yamaha brand racing colour scheme of that time, with a great deal of work carried out on both engine and exhaust.
2. Suzuki GT 750
This striking Suzuki GT 750 has been the object of a ‘conservative’ restoration, fitted with a period Bimota fairing and seat kit. It can best be described as an authentic Cafe Racer of the 1970s.
3. Suzuki GSX 1200
The 2001 Suzuki GSX 1200 made by Italian steel art is a good example of a ‘café racer job’ with a more contemporary motorcycle as a basis. From a simple, plain production bike into an austere, but elegant café racer.
4. Yamaha XSR 700
Finally, an extraordinary 2016 Yamaha XSR 700, the work of Spanish tuner Adhoc that won the official Yamaha Yard Built contest, offered with factory warranty, whose aesthetics defy all applicable adjectives.
About Japanese café racers
Café racers are essentially light motorcycles, in which most superfluous elements are generally discarded; there are few wearing a fairing. Café racers are characterised by their chrome-less, plain, matt-black and streamlined lines. They are fitted with low narrow handlebars, round headlights, slim seats (often leather trimmed) and roaring exhausts. Mechanical tuning is not mandatory, but sometimes used to improve performance. These are not racetrack-aimed motorcycles, but impregnated with sports spirit. This famous style started with British motorcycles of the 1950s and 1960s. Today the vast majority of these so-called 'café racer conversions' are made by modifying Japanese machines, because these are the most interesting and affordable models and most suited for these kind of modifications. We're talking about Honda CB, Yamaha XS and XJ models (even SR), Suzuki GS and GT and almost any Kawasaki Z, KZ and GPZ that were built ten, twenty or thirty years ago. Its displacement usually ranges from 400 to 1,000 cc.
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Inspired by Manuel's selection? Visit the Café Racer Motorcycles auction to find more out-of-the-ordinary and harder-to-find motorcycles.
Discover more Suzuki | Yamaha | Honda
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