What's a good donor bike to make a cafe racer?

Motorcycling
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So once the blade is done I’m thinking about building a cafe racer.

I’d like it to have a v-twin engine, or a big single maybe…

Can anyone suggest a suitable donor bike to use as a place to start?

Has anyone on here built a cafe racer themselves?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

its just a streetfighter with clipons :smiley: Depends how old you wanna go , XS650 is a good start point for anything traditional .

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That xs650 looks like it could be a good one! Thanks Num.

Yeah I know there’s a similarity between a cafe racer and a fighter… But I want something that’s not an inline 4, something a bit older, and then do some work on the engine to make it go proper quick!

Clips on bars, a seat with a hump at the back, maybe a nice bubble nose fairing?

Nice it should be, if I ever get round to making one! :slight_smile:

4

I want to build a cb450 night hawk café at some point in my life I dont know why they just do something for me

5

Ooh that’s a great shout Ross!

Been thinking about a cx500, or an old BMW boxer engine bike?

Or one of those bikes that Kawasaki made with the three cylinder 2 stroke engine. That would be absolutely amazing!

6

The xs is where the off the shelf tuning options are. Big bore kits. Carb kits, ignition systems and even different cranks and cams to turn them into big bang engines. options nearly endless.

7

No no no no no

What you needs for a base has to be some c1960’s partsNorton’s featherbed frameTriumph’s T120 engineDunlop’s TT100 rubberBoyer’s electronic ignition moduleThe end result should look something like

2ee7a0ea-5976-475c-bd54-aa0a.jpg800×533

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I’d go another way with a BMW F650 GS single. Rorty can, lose the plastics, already has wire wheels. Fit some clipons and Wunderlich do tuning parts?

9

get a TL or VTR engine :smiley:

10

Or a beemer

BMW-cafe-racers.jpg1024×683

11

Kawasaki W650

http://www.returnofthecaferacers.com/2011/07/building-cafe-racer-selecting.html

12

moto guzzi v7 racer…

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That KTM is lovely!

15

Old CB750.

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This would be ideal but unfortunately all these bits are way out of budget

17

An old Kawasaki Z[something] would do, but it seems everyone else has thought of that and they’re more expensive than a new bike in some cases!

You could just cheat and buy a Zephyr 1100 and take the badge off…

18

TRX850?

19

any old CBxxx would be a good starting point really.

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