On the dawn of a new year there's plenty to get excited about. You've got another year of riding adventures ahead of you, there's new motorcycles to build and hopefully plenty of cash to fund their completion!

Happy New Year from all of us. Stay safe on the roads and keep on wrenching.

"Fall is hands down the best time of year in California. The tourists have gone home and the beaches are left to the surfers and vagabonds. Not sure which category we fall into, but most likely a little of both. We decided to take a little road trip up the coast to enjoy the bounty of some of what california has to offer this time of year - empty beaches and deserted back country roads. Our good friend Scott Toepfer joined us and recorded some highlights for posterity. Here's a little video he shot and edited for us. Enjoy."

As 2011 draws to a close, it's time again for our second annual top 10 list - or more correctly the nouveau-fangled "top 11" list as this year we've decided to include an editor's choice for the bike Scott and I thought could do with a little repeat viewing. In case you're wondering, we picked them by looking at the bikes with the most comments and then threw in a little personal preference magic. We hope you like them. First up is the rather controversial Blitz BMW we featured in March. It generated a veritable flood of comments including a few essays, though it's not often you see the words "hipster douchebag cool kids" in your average English paper. Looking back, we're not sure what all the fuss was about - tell us you wouldn't like to find that in the garage every Sunday morning.

"I started with a hanging race braced frame and swingarm. All parts on this bike are completely rebuilt for reducing weight and performing better. Tappered steering head bearings and aluminum top and lower triple trees! Alluminum headlight brackets. Race digital tach and speedo. Dual front disk brakes with 120 drilled holes. Black steel braided brake lines and new ebc pads. Rebuilt master cylinder works great and new stainless steel bleeders on the way! New headlight and Jet fighter toggle switch for low high beam. Vortec clip ons with black dogleg levers and triumph grips. Brand new front end -2 forks-seals-gaitors. Dyna electronic ignition and 3 0hm coils with 8.8 accel wires with race cut D8ES plugs (extra set). Oregon parts reg/rectifier and True Gel Battery under seat. Motor has 555cc big bore kit and all new seals throughout. Trans is perfect and super tight. Custom drilled exhaust baffle and smoothed and welded header (All one peice now!) Powder coated in super high temp. Will not fade!"



"Sounds exactly like the old Yoshimura exhaust. 18 tooth front sprocket with alluminum 32 tooth rear with gold 530 o-ring chain. Drilled clutch cover with NOS clutch actuator and all new motion pro lines with nos Domino race throttle. Carbs are completely rebuilt and have been performance jetted and synchronized. Ram Air filters. Best in the world! Custom alluminum rear sets and linkage. Relocated kick stand. New Shinko sticky tires tubes and rim strips on NEVER before mounted NOS Invader wheels 10 spoke rounds! New wheel bearings and drilled rear brake plate. Relocated rear brake stay bar and reworked rear brake rod! Custom hidden exhaust mount. New brass swingarm bearings. Hot Rod tail light real glass blue dot with license plate light! AWESOME Hot Rod paint scheme by me! Alluminum gas cap. Fully sealed gas tank using Caswell sealer! Best on the market."


"This bike runs like a 750! Super quick response and is great at highway speed with the sprockets. Pulls all the way. Crisp response from down low too! I couldn't be happier with this build and I know you will be when you ride it."

We just received images of this outstanding 1974 Honda CB750 Cafe Racer from photographer Phil Foss. The bike was put together in a warehouse space in Chantilly, Virginia by the guys who Phil shares the space with. The motorcycle underwent a full custom resto with many parts being replaced or refurbished and is up for sale now on eBay with no reserve.




The Hondas original switches and speedo were removed and the original bars replaced with Clubmans to keep the front of the bike as clean as possible and give it a lower, Cafe Racer style stance. Fresh steering bearings were fitted along with new tyres front and back so the Honda is ready to take on the twistys straight away. Plenty of fuel and air is fed to the engine via a set of Mikuni carbs tuned to maximise throttle response and according to Phil these combined with the 4 in to 1 exhaust make her "scream".


The CBs custom made tail section and single seat give it a 70's flavour, true to it's birth date and add to it's Cafe Racer styling. Some basic modifications to the frame have helped to remove redundant tags and the unwanted tail loop before a fresh coat of black. The engine also received a face lift with a full clean and plenty of polishing to the side covers, case covers and head. The black and silver paint finishes off the CB750 with a salute to the classic Cafe Racer colour schemes of the fifties.

Moto artist Jeff Gundlach has designed many magazine covers for publications like Cycle Magazine and Cycle News over the years, but he recently finished designing and building his biggest project yet - the first Raven Motorcycle. To say it's been a long time in the making is an understatement. "About 15 years ago I thought of the possibility of designing a bike using the Moto Guzzi engine and the Norton transmission" says Jeff. "Sketches were made and it went to the back burner". Fast forward to 2 years ago and Jeff decided he had the skills and tools to proceed with the design he scribbled all those years ago.  "I wanted to build something unique, powerful, light, functional, and a classic look. Choppers, bobbers and sportbikes are very cool but, I did not want to build from an existing engine/trans/frame package." This is how Jeff describes how the Raven came to life.

Well I don't know about you but I'm just about as stuffed as the Turkey I polished off yesterday! Today is a great day to sit and relax in front of your computer with a beer and find inspiration for your holiday  custom motorcycle project, so without further adieu here's the best Cafe Racers and custom motorcycles that have found their way into our inbox this month. We hope they get you as excited as they did us.

Brad's 1976 Honda CB750:




We're kicking off this months round up with a CB750 ground up rebuild and resto Cafe Racer from Brad in Wisconsin. It's a 1976 CB750 which is Brad's first custom motorcycle build. The build was began after a nasty chain snap that resulted in a busted engine cover. The rebuild included a new refurbed and painted engine, fresh paint job, polished covers and some nifty cutting to produce the rising sun emblems on the sprocket cover and engine mounts. Clip on bars, a Yoshimura exhaust, small indicators and tail light and custom designed  decals on the dials complete complete the look of this CB750 Cafe Racer.


If you check out Brad's Flickr page he has put together a selection of CB750 wallpapers for those of you who are die hard fans and the might Honda Four.

Pommy Jon's T120R Triton:

Jon's Triton Cafe Racer is a real looker and unfortunately the shot above is the only one we have (Jon if you're reading this feel free to send in some more photos). It's the perfect mix of a 1965 T120R Triumph engine and a 1961 Norton Slimline frame. 1970 GT750 forks were polished and fitted along with the hubs which have been custom laced and again polished to a mirror finish. A Joe Hunt magneto keeps the electrics in order and a pair of halogens in the nose provide the light needed for night rides. In classic Cafe Racer style Jon took a Suzuki 250 petrol tank and cut it out to form the seat pan and tail section...it's a trick that we think make those fibreglass options sound pretty lame!

1978 Honda CB550K3 Cafe Racer:

After being surrounded by Cafe Racers for most of his life Sean wanted to build a bike in the style he had grown to love but with the same reliable characteristics of the sports bikes he owned. In Feb 2011 he got his hands on a Honda CB550 which he promptly stripped down to begin converting in to his dream ride. Here's how it came together:


"This is the 1st bike that I have ever completely built from the ground up. I have done all of the fabrication myself, the only thing I didn't do was powder coating the rims. I taught myself how to weld, how to work with fibreglass and how to spray paint and pinstripe. Just a few of the numerous changes I made to the bike include fitting the fuel tank from a Honda CB500T, adding a CEV Tipo 105 headlight and bucket converted to run a halogen, the seat and tail were made by myself and also upholstered by me also. The exhaust is a mis-mash of parts, two of the pipes are CB500K, two are from a CB650 and the 4 into 2 collector is also from a CB650. I rebuilt the engine and the braking system which included changing the rear drum brake from rod to cable operated for better modulation and feel."


Sean had his fair share of frustrations with the build especially with the rewiring and relocating the electrics but he's proud of how it turned out and rightly so. He's now planning a more modern Cafe Racer based on a Ducati Monster.

1974 Norton Commando 850 Roadster:




It's not as extreme as the other custom builds listed above but this Norton Commando is an absolute work of art. Joe bought the Norton as a "non running rusty mess" that had been updated several times in its life but had never had a full resto.


A "mild" Cafe Racer was achieved with some basic aesthetic upgrades but the rest of the build wasn't so easy. Joe tells us that "the list of upgrades it too long to to list!" and during this ground up rebuild every nut, bolt and part was either replaced, upgraded or rebuilt. Judging from these photos we're not about to question that claim as it's one of the nicest Commandos we've seen in some time.


If you've got a custom motorcycle or a Cafe Racer you'd like to see on Return of the Cafe Racers send it to us here.

The Sydney Cafe Racers group popped up on the Aussie scene mid way through 2011. They've not only established a great website, facebook following and Blog but they have a pretty exciting 2012 planned from the look of this video. Check out the Sydney Cafe Racers website and if you're in Sydney be sure to get along to one of the rides.

This year has been a big one for us and we have you guys to thank. We have had over two million unique hits and thousands of comments – and hardly any of those were selling viagra thanks to our anti-spam system. We also have to thank our loyal sponsors who have been awesome. Have to give a special shout out to Icon Motorsports who have been supporting this little blog from the beginning. Their products keep on getting better and better. And to quote Hell for Leather "Icon is going to take over the world". It's true.

Wherever you are reading this, whether its snowing, raining, sunny, or in prison (hey Bubba) we hope you have a great Christmas and a rockin new year. We are pumped for 2012 and have loads of new stuff to bring to the Pipeburn table. 

Ride safe. 

Scott & Andrew.