October! What the hell happened to September!? More amazing home built Cafe Racers from our readers. This time round it's an all Honda round up. Keep em coming!

Cliff's 1977 Honda CB750F2 Cafe Racer

The 'High Tea Racer' is a Cafe Racer with "a touch of steampunk". The bikes top triple has been shaved and clip on bars fitted, new instruments, new lighting all round and some modifications to the Hondas frame give it the classic Cafe look. Other custom modifications include the seat, leather tool/saddle bag, a trick paint job and the "brass section" velocity stacks. Check out Cliff's Steam punk website for some of his other handy work austeampunk.blogspot.com





Tom's 1979 Honda CB550K Cafe Racer


When Tom bought his Honda CB550K it not only looked like crap but smelt like it too! The bike had been in a barn for 12-13 years next to a sewage plant so nothing short of a full strip down would suffice. Once the stench was gone and all the redundant lugs had been removed Tom ordered a tank and seat combo from Vonzeti. A new rear hoop was installed go match the new bodywork and the frame went off for powder coating. The engine received some much needed love in the form of new rings, lapped valves and mild porting. The velocity stacks and rear sets are one offs turned by a mate on a lathe but everything else was completed by Tom in his home workshop.



John's 1977 Honda GL1000 Goldwing  Cafe Racer



When it comes to building a Cafe Racer these days it seems that almost anything goes. Our reader John decided his Honda Goldwing would make a great base for a Cafe build. He bored out the motor to 1100cc's for a bit of extra oomph, lowered it's stance, cross drilled the brake rotors and got rid of the stock carb rack for a two barrel webber. To get it looking the part he installed clubman bars, removed the turn signals and tail lights and powder coated his rims to match the bodywork. Finally he modified a pair of Hayabusa mufflers and fitted them to a set of aftermarket headers. Looks like fun...

The footage above was shot by a Swedish film crew showing Rooney during motorcycle training riding the Honda Cafe Racer. Check out the trailer below for some quick shots of the bike in the final production.



The original version of the film was gritty, confronting and in some scenes quite disturbing and Fincher's remake promises to be just as intense. If you're a fan of a good suspense movie be sure to head to the cinema when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo screens in December.

"We spent the day with Classified Moto in Richmond, Virginia as they made — start to finish — one of their recycled motorcycle parts lamps. Their main business is creating retro-cool custom bikes out of ugly duckling Japanese bikes from the '70s and '80s. But their killer lamp design was a surprise hit around the world. There's now a Classified Moto Lamp on every continent — except Antarctica. "

It's truly inspiring when you get a chance to tag along with someone to watch their creative process. If you want one of these outstanding lamps drop by the Classified Moto website to place an order...and while you're there check out their equally impressive custom motorcycle builds.

"I didn't set out to build a bike, I really wanted to build a car. But my friend Don, a long-time motorhead, said to "try a bike first, it's cheaper and easier. If you get through that you're ready for anything."
 Okay. But all I'd ever done was occasionally change the oil on my old dirt bike, I'm not exactly what you'd call a mechanic. Which in the end wasn't a problem. As I found out, all you have to do is...well, just do it.
 First you need a vision, an end goal. For me it was the clean lines of a cafe racer. Unlike modern bikes, you see the machinery--keeping the "motor" in motorcycle. They seem light and nimble, with plenty of air around the parts, looking like what they are: honest, simple machines, with a slight raw edge. Cool.
 I sat on the idea for a year until my kid, Alex, was born. Since it didn't look like I'd be leaving him much money, I figured I'd make the bike for him, and started the fictitious ADS (his initials) Motorcycle Company as kind of a legacy. Sounds corny, but until your kid becomes an obnoxious teenager—dads think like that. The next step was finding a donor bike. Don advised that I start with a solid foundation, a bike with "good bones" and the right look. For that I bought a beat-up 2000 Kawasaki W650 from a lesbian couple in New Jersey who were trading up to matching Harleys.
Besides looking like an old Brit twin, the W650 came with a shop manual—which turned out to be the most important tool in the build as it was written for idiots. So I felt right at home."

"Except for the engine internals, I rebuilt everything on the bike mostly just to learn how, and built a lot of new parts, too. I found a world on the internet to access things from Germany, Japan, and even some custom electrical connectors from a guy in Argentina. I also found that if you're willing to make mistakes and do things over at least three times, nothing is impossible. In the end it worked out well. Alex is proud to show other kids "his bike," I built something better than I ever thought possible. Plus, it not only runs and hasn't killed me, it actually handles better, too. All very good things. Now, as my friend Don said, I'm ready for anything. But I won't be building that car. I've got another bike in mind and I’m starting to build bikes for others, so ADS Motorcycles may actually become a reality after all." 

• Wired tail light from old Vincent with LEDs
• Headlight stone guard from an old MG sport scar
• Vintage cloth wrapping on spark plug wires
• Front sprocket cover adapted from a 2011 W800
• Changed frame geometry and suspension for better handling
• Homemade cowl/seat base
• Polished Superbrace fork brace
• Stainless steel tank strap
• Frame reworked for battery tray and electronics under seat
• Stock pipes/mufflers coated by Jet Hot and wrapped 
• Crankcase breather filter/canister
• Dyno tuned for better midrange punch.
• CRG bar-end mirrors
• 1974 Triumph Bonneville T-140 tank modified to fit
• Custom red-foam air filters
• Finned bevel drive cover
• Custom wire loom
• and much more...

Unconventional, ugly and cool as hell, this is the magnificent Wooler motorcycles Flat Four.

Developed by John Wooler in 1948 the flat four was powered by a 500cc transverse flat four that delivered power to the rear wheel via a shaft drive and was capable of speeds of up to 90mph. The flat fours suspension had quadruple plungers front and rear, its exhaust was integrated into the frame tubing, a rocker pedal on the left side of the bike was for shifting gears and the seats suspension ran down inside the frame. The model shown in these photos is the revamped version from 1955 which featured a slightly simplified suspension set up.


The odd looking fuel tank is without a doubt the most unusual feature of the flat four and was a design used on Woolers other motorcycles. Another interesting thing about this motorcycle, and one that many backyard mechanics will appreciate, was that the flat fours tool kit only held one wrench. The entire motorcycle only used only 2 sizes of nut and bolt making it a very easy machine to work on outside of a tool filled workshop.



Determined not to conform, Wooler used several other unconventional engines to power his motorcycles such as vertical cam singles, fore and aft twins and transverse four beam engines. Woolers focus was never on being a commercial manufacturer, opting to innovate wherever possible and break the rules set by the dominant motorcycle manufacturers of the early 1900s. In 1955 an investment of 200 British pounds would park a Flat Four in your driveway. If you happened to still have it today you'd have one of only a small handful that were produced before Woolers death in 1956 and the subsequent closure of Wooler motorcycles.

Back in black. And green

Vespas. Pizza. Mafia. Alfa Romeo. Ferrari. Spaghetti. Gelato. Armani. These are all Italian things you will commonly find on the streets of America. But would you find as many American things on the paved lane ways of Italy? You might find the odd McDonalds restaurant in the major towns. You'll also find loads of people wearing Chuck Taylors and Levi's jeans, but you wouldn't think you would find a lot of Milwalkee Iron. Or would you? "You actually do see lots of Harley's being ridden around the streets of Milan" says Samuele Reali, one of the owners of Abnormal Cycles, which is based in a town called Bernareggio, not far from Milano. Abnormal Cycles are quite famous in Europe but recently received worldwide exposure when their 'Union' H-D Sidecar took out the 2011 AMD World Championships Modified Harley-Davidson Class. Well, this Harley cafe racer was built before the 'Union' and has also picked up its fair share of trophies in Europe. But as I soon found out, there's not a lot of infomation about the bike anywhere - so I attempted to create find some.

Just came across these very nice photos of Falcon Motorcycles "Black" in their LA workshop by Michael Schmidt.

We have been receiving some stunning Cafe Racers from our readers. If you have a Cafe Racer you've built in your home workshop, backyard or living room why not send it in now for a chance to see it on Return of the Cafe Racers. Here's a few from other readers to help get you inspired...

Nick's Moto Guzzie Le Mans Cafe Racer


Nick's Cafe racer is based on a 1980 Mk2 Le mans. 18 months of hard work went in to completing this build. The Guzzi's mechanical parts have been fully refurbished, the bodywork and frame have been re-painted and there are a load of one off and custom parts that went in to the build. Nick got the Guzzi back on the road in June and so far it's been trouble free. I think Nick needs to have more faith in his custom motorcycle building abilities! The Guzzi Cafe Racer recently graced the pages of MCN which is testament to all of his hard work. Check out Nicks Blog to see the build process: guzzicafe.blogspot.com



Old Wang's Honda CB100 Cafe Racer


Dave's 1977 Yamaha XS400 Cafe Racer

• dropped lots and lots of weight by getting ride of excess junk
• fork brace
• tapered roller bearings
• 20 w 50 oil in fork gas rear shocks
• 2 into1 exhaust
• adjustable clip-ons
• dual front disk
• Magura brake lever and master cylinder
• upgraded headlight
• fiberglass seat
• battery relocation
• K&N air filters
• custom gauge mount