I understand your perspective. But all my suggestions on this video, are from the perspective of being aesthetically pleasing, which some times is far from the current trent. Cheers.
Sadly, the Starbucks-poseurs they call "café-racers" nowadays are all about trends and nothing about tradition, most notably, the trend to fit them with dangerous off-road knobby tyres or faux vintage Chinese tyres designed for tractors and utilities.
@@PierredeCuroff road tyres are just for scramblers. Trackers and cafe racer are meant to race, not to do trails. You see the error over there. BUT i agree that this trend of putting two big, knobby of tyres of the same size is indeed dangerous. Otherwise the engineers wouldn't spend years and years developing a relation between tyres and rim sizes, front and rear.
Very good points on the custom seat! This is almost always the first thing to change on most motorcycles. You demonstrated a lot of excellent illustrations that are helpful. And, as always, thank you for Racer TV, the Café Racers only choice! Hope all is well and you’re enjoying some riding time! Ride safe my friend! Cheers:)
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. Yes, Frankenstein have been busy during the last 2 weeks. I ride it almost every day to go to work. You too dear friend. Thank you. :) Cheers.
Thank you for pointing out some things i had really never considered in styling a custom seat Take care stay safe and may your God bless you always 🙋♂️🇬🇧🇺🇸
Once again, this has been a master class. All constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks for another great video. It helps us understand the wonderful world of cafe racer. So complex, so special, so own.
Thanks for the insights and wisdom on this video. So much learning all through out in this channel,.so timely that im doing a custom seat on may kawasaki hd3 2stroke. Kudos Sir God bless From the Philippines.
As usual this is just another excellent video which has made me stop and rethink my ideas. I know what I want, but you have shown me why and how. I have been gifted a 1981 Kawasaki KH750 4 ... a real "Barn Find" stored outside (under cover for 12 years). I'm putting some of my knowledge into converting it to a Café Racer style build. You give me the advice, ideas and inspiration to making it all become a reality ... well ... one day!!! Thank you Racer TV!
Nice video Racer, lots of excellent points and great info. This one will getting people rethink their ideas. Hope all is going well, take care and ride safe. Cheers
i adore your channel, and i follow you. Love design and motorcycles but i never had a street bike (always kind of "enduro/travel" (from 125 to 1150). I appreciate the cure of the program, the transition you use to show people what a HUGE difference makes few cm.. following you,i was push last year to bought a R1150R 2002 and tryed to modify it a little bit to move trought cafè racer.. even if now seems i made few modifications, it need me many months and night hours to arrive to this point. i really would like to show you if was possibile. Greeting from ITaly, Max!! 😉
Thank you for this video. The harmony among elements of design is very hard to achieve, even doing a perfect CAD presentation in real life material, composition of materials and forms is starting to show you compatibility when the seat, end tail or whichever component is we are doing is mounted on a modified bike. The slight tone changes in materials used can do so so much too. Final harmony which brings that beauty we seek needs very very long and complex process. As in a last video, the 8 day modification project is super but looks unfinished.
Particularly I don't like (hate), the brat (no style) seat one meter long "ironing table", if you want to ride with your girlfriend and her mother, then a car suits you better!! I am sick and tired of people saying "I build a cafe racer" and the bike looks like anything but cafe racer!!! Cool video Victor, regards!!😅
Thank you Carlos or sharing your opinion. Yes, i completely understand what you said. There are a lot of people who call cafe racer to any style of custom/ neo classic bike. I hope this video may teach the essential to some. :) Cheers.
Pretendo mudar o banco da minha RE Interceptor bem como a pintura inferior, pois ela é uma Baker Express!! Já vi uma customizada na França que ficou linda com detalhes em dourado e motor com tampas laterais pretas. Parabéns pelo canal e muito sucesso para você!!! abraço do Brasil!!!
Subtle changes can mean a lot to any project. For me personally, the frame is always the starting point. And on some projects I have made 2 seat options for the one machine.
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. Yes, I think i already mentioned in the past the 2 seats option. Definitely one of the smartest choices for those who need a 2 seater, but love the Cafe racer style. :) Cheers.
Hi. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for me answering all messages. But try to send me 1 or 2 photos with a private message on Racer TV's Facebook Page. (There is a link on the Channel's main page.) I will try to answer you. Thank you my friend for your support. Cheers.
You're right if you're building from scratch or asembling (although the engine comes before or with the frame, as in Tritons and such), but, if you're transforming, tyres were always what came first, as stock tyres were usually 💩 for racing in the days and tyres is the one factor whose change can bring more gain with the least inversion. :-)
Isn't the most important thing is comfort my look cool but no good for along trip where you have to stop every half an hour to stretch take so much longer
I have *lived* the times of the real café-racers and riding and making café-racers all my long life and, sorry, but it's wrong in so many things. To begin with your first affirmation that the first thing that is changed on a café-racer is the seat when it was the *tyres*: to substitute the usual 💩 stock tyres (like Yokohama on classic Japanese bikes) with decent ones with acceptable grip and stability (like Dunlop K81 and later Michelin PZ2 and PZ4). And surely no café-racer has been fitted with unstable off-road knobby tyres with poor grip on the road or the 💩 faux vintage Chinese tyres seemingly made for tractors that are so fashionable among hipsters. :-) Seats came later, third after the tyres and the handlebars for lowered ones, and it was mainly to reduce the height of the seat. Also, remember the function of café-racers expressed in their name - made to race between cafés - and uncompromisingly so. *Everything* was sacrified to speed and efficiency in the twisties. That includes aesthetics that were *always* sacrificed to speed, stability, handling, and braking. A lot of my café-racers were quite ugly for this reason, but nobody was able to beat them in their task and function: beat the buddies at the café. :-) That's why nowadays I have to change very little to make a current stock bike like my Duke 890 R and my previous 690 perfect café-racers, because they already have outstanding tyres, brakes, engine, suspensions, seat, controls and so on. :-) Still riding like a hurricane at 71 😀
@PierredeCur Dear Sir, Thank you for sharing your perspective. I just wanted to clarify that everything said in this video, is related to the current transformations of cafe racers, which is why current priorities, are completely different from those of the 60s. But I understand your point. The cafe racer performance, might been very important in the 50's and 60's. But nowadays, I don't see the cafe racer performance as an important feature. And why? If we really want a fast bike, we just need to buy a Yamaha R1. And this means that this rebirth of the "cafe racer" scene, must have a different approach. :) I hope you understand my point. :) Thank you. And congratulations on continuing your passion for motorcycles. It's something very inspiring. :) Cheers.
@RACER_TV that's my point: the things that you make nowadays and call "café-racers" are *not* real café-racers like in the days, but at most Starbucks-poseurs, not made to race between cafés, but to pose st the local Starbucks. That is, if you even ride that far, because many are just bibelots to decorate some hipster's living room. :-( We who have lived the times of real café-racers are dying out of age, so in thet future, nobody will know what real café-racers were and will believe that today's hipster contraptions were the thing when they are actually the opposite in spirit. I find that sad... 😞 Performance is the point of a real café-racer. That's why my Duke is much more café-racer than anything you can made. And it's good, as I just have to change a very few detailds to make it perfect. And I don't need to make it so ugly as I made so many café-racers in search for speed and stability in twisties. :-) An example: the ugly empty space under the seat that's so fashionable among today's faux "café-racers". Some, few, of the café-racers of tje days has it because it's where the battery and the air filter were located and so that empty space was a consequence of removing the battery and changing the air filter for velocity stacks. However, removing the battery was only possible if the bike had a magneto and a kick starter, and I doubt very much that modern café-racers have that. So, if you remove the battery from under the seat, a good low and centred position, you have to move it higher, like under the back of the seat which worsen the position of the centre of gravity, something you would never will in a real café-racer. And the 💩 tyres with 💩 grip and 💩 stability compared to any today's sport tyre is a heresy, a blasfemy to the real café-racer spirit, that's 100% sure...
Not sure I agree with all your points, but it's an interesting video nonetheless. 7:33 is going to do radical gender reassignment surgery the first time the rider has to really hammer the brakes o_O
@@RACER_TV Leather skinned solo seats are just fashion in the vintage days the solo saddle seats were padded and sprung double or single. Worked on a ton of bobbers trailer bikes and those guys cannot handle 200km in the seat often but use them to bar hop mostly and pose or vogue out LOL!
@bopeep268 I bet you drive a Toyota. Loool. If everyone thought like you, cars like the Jaguar E type, or the Porsche 911, would never have been created. What I want to say, is that true passion doesn't have to follow logic or common sense. On the contrary. What is normally beautiful, defies conventionality. :) Cheers.
I don't know if he owns one, but he clearly has not lived or known the times of real café-racers as his concept is very far away from what it was in the days...
Thanks for the Master class on custom seats
Thank you my friend for your support. :) Cheers.
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not trends.
I understand your perspective. But all my suggestions on this video, are from the perspective of being aesthetically pleasing, which some times is far from the current trent. Cheers.
Sadly, the Starbucks-poseurs they call "café-racers" nowadays are all about trends and nothing about tradition, most notably, the trend to fit them with dangerous off-road knobby tyres or faux vintage Chinese tyres designed for tractors and utilities.
@@PierredeCuroff road tyres are just for scramblers. Trackers and cafe racer are meant to race, not to do trails. You see the error over there. BUT i agree that this trend of putting two big, knobby of tyres of the same size is indeed dangerous. Otherwise the engineers wouldn't spend years and years developing a relation between tyres and rim sizes, front and rear.
Very good points on the custom seat! This is almost always the first thing to change on most motorcycles. You demonstrated a lot of excellent illustrations that are helpful. And, as always, thank you for Racer TV, the Café Racers only choice! Hope all is well and you’re enjoying some riding time! Ride safe my friend! Cheers:)
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. Yes, Frankenstein have been busy during the last 2 weeks. I ride it almost every day to go to work. You too dear friend. Thank you. :) Cheers.
Thank you for pointing out some things i had really never considered in styling a custom seat
Take care stay safe and may your God bless you always
🙋♂️🇬🇧🇺🇸
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. :) Cheers.
been following your videos specifically about cafe racer and loved each one of it
Thank you my friend for your support. :) Cheers.
It is so good to see you guys again. It's been a hectic few years, probably for everyone. Excellent video, by the way. :)
Thank you my friend for your support. :) Cheers.
agora que vocÊ falou sobre essa inclinação no final da espuma do acento brat style, pra mim faz TOTAL sentido
Obrigado amigo por partilhar a sua opinião. :) Um abraço.
Once again, this has been a master class. All constructive criticism is welcome.
Thanks for another great video. It helps us understand the wonderful world of cafe racer. So complex, so special, so own.
Thank you my friend for your kind comment. :) Cheers.
Thanks for the insights and wisdom on this video. So much learning all through out in this channel,.so timely that im doing a custom seat on may kawasaki hd3 2stroke. Kudos Sir God bless
From the Philippines.
Thank you my friend for your kind comment. :) Cheers.
As usual this is just another excellent video which has made me stop and rethink my ideas. I know what I want, but you have shown me why and how.
I have been gifted a 1981 Kawasaki KH750 4 ... a real "Barn Find" stored outside (under cover for 12 years). I'm putting some of my knowledge into converting it to a Café Racer style build. You give me the advice, ideas and inspiration to making it all become a reality ... well ... one day!!!
Thank you Racer TV!
Thank you my friend for your kind comment. I am very glad this video was helpfull to you. :) Cheers.
It's got to be a good day when a new RacerTV appears.
Lool. Thank you my friend for your kind comment. :) Cheers.
Thanks again my friend for another great video! Such simple little changes which can make a big difference to the look of the bike.
Thank you. I'm glad you liked my friend. :) Cheers.
Nice video Racer, lots of excellent points and great info. This one will getting people rethink their ideas. Hope all is going well, take care and ride safe. Cheers
Thank you. I'm glad you liked my friend. Evrything is fine. Thanks. You too. :) Cheers.
i adore your channel, and i follow you. Love design and motorcycles but i never had a street bike (always kind of "enduro/travel" (from 125 to 1150). I appreciate the cure of the program, the transition you use to show people what a HUGE difference makes few cm..
following you,i was push last year to bought a R1150R 2002 and tryed to modify it a little bit to move trought cafè racer..
even if now seems i made few modifications, it need me many months and night hours to arrive to this point. i really would like to show you if was possibile.
Greeting from ITaly, Max!! 😉
Thank you for this video. The harmony among elements of design is very hard to achieve, even doing a perfect CAD presentation in real life material, composition of materials and forms is starting to show you compatibility when the seat, end tail or whichever component is we are doing is mounted on a modified bike. The slight tone changes in materials used can do so so much too. Final harmony which brings that beauty we seek needs very very long and complex process. As in a last video, the 8 day modification project is super but looks unfinished.
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. :) Cheers.
Fantastic video as always!
Thank you my friend for your support. :) Cheers.
Particularly I don't like (hate), the brat (no style) seat one meter long "ironing table", if you want to ride with your girlfriend and her mother, then a car suits you better!!
I am sick and tired of people saying "I build a cafe racer" and the bike looks like anything but cafe racer!!!
Cool video Victor, regards!!😅
Thank you Carlos or sharing your opinion. Yes, i completely understand what you said. There are a lot of people who call cafe racer to any style of custom/ neo classic bike. I hope this video may teach the essential to some. :) Cheers.
@@RACER_TV you are doing a great job with this channel, towards to the real cafe racers lovers, thank you Victor!!
@carlosgooglemaps94 Thank you my friend for your kind words. Cheers
Como siempre disfrutando de estos maravillosos videos gracias racer tv saludos desde México.
Thank you my friend for your kind comment. :)Saludos
Thank you for all of your advices!!!
Pretendo mudar o banco da minha RE Interceptor bem como a pintura inferior, pois ela é uma Baker Express!! Já vi uma customizada na França que ficou linda com detalhes em dourado e motor com tampas laterais pretas. Parabéns pelo canal e muito sucesso para você!!! abraço do Brasil!!!
Subtle changes can mean a lot to any project. For me personally, the frame is always the starting point. And on some projects I have made 2 seat options for the one machine.
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. Yes, I think i already mentioned in the past the 2 seats option. Definitely one of the smartest choices for those who need a 2 seater, but love the Cafe racer style. :) Cheers.
Супер обзор🤩👍
Been struggling w seats for my Spees Twin on my third, very expensive custom seat; looks great, but is uncomfortable 🥲
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. :) Cheers.
6:22 😯👍
Sir how can I contact you to send my cafe racer motorcycle pictures build from royal enfiled thunderbird. Waiting for you reply
Hi. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for me answering all messages. But try to send me 1 or 2 photos with a private message on Racer TV's Facebook Page. (There is a link on the Channel's main page.) I will try to answer you. Thank you my friend for your support. Cheers.
Thanks alot
Well... it's a matter of taste, and there's no arguing about taste
Indeed. But there are certain details that really makes the difference. :) Cheers.
Will you modify the bike as I say,
As I said during the video, everything i said are just suggestions to help other enthusiasts. Cheers.
I don't like the bobber style with no comfort a open rear wheel is crazy on some bikes
In my opinion when building bike every bike i make first was a frame and then tank after that seat
I understand. But to change the frame, first you probablyt have to difine what kind of seat and dimentions. Am i right? :) Cheers.
You're right if you're building from scratch or asembling (although the engine comes before or with the frame, as in Tritons and such), but, if you're transforming, tyres were always what came first, as stock tyres were usually 💩 for racing in the days and tyres is the one factor whose change can bring more gain with the least inversion. :-)
Isn't the most important thing is comfort my look cool but no good for along trip where you have to stop every half an hour to stretch take so much longer
I have *lived* the times of the real café-racers and riding and making café-racers all my long life and, sorry, but it's wrong in so many things.
To begin with your first affirmation that the first thing that is changed on a café-racer is the seat when it was the *tyres*: to substitute the usual 💩 stock tyres (like Yokohama on classic Japanese bikes) with decent ones with acceptable grip and stability (like Dunlop K81 and later Michelin PZ2 and PZ4). And surely no café-racer has been fitted with unstable off-road knobby tyres with poor grip on the road or the 💩 faux vintage Chinese tyres seemingly made for tractors that are so fashionable among hipsters. :-)
Seats came later, third after the tyres and the handlebars for lowered ones, and it was mainly to reduce the height of the seat.
Also, remember the function of café-racers expressed in their name - made to race between cafés - and uncompromisingly so. *Everything* was sacrified to speed and efficiency in the twisties. That includes aesthetics that were *always* sacrificed to speed, stability, handling, and braking. A lot of my café-racers were quite ugly for this reason, but nobody was able to beat them in their task and function: beat the buddies at the café. :-)
That's why nowadays I have to change very little to make a current stock bike like my Duke 890 R and my previous 690 perfect café-racers, because they already have outstanding tyres, brakes, engine, suspensions, seat, controls and so on. :-)
Still riding like a hurricane at 71 😀
@PierredeCur Dear Sir, Thank you for sharing your perspective. I just wanted to clarify that everything said in this video, is related to the current transformations of cafe racers, which is why current priorities, are completely different from those of the 60s. But I understand your point. The cafe racer performance, might been very important in the 50's and 60's. But nowadays, I don't see the cafe racer performance as an important feature. And why?
If we really want a fast bike, we just need to buy a Yamaha R1.
And this means that this rebirth of the "cafe racer" scene, must have a different approach. :) I hope you understand my point. :) Thank you. And congratulations on continuing your passion for motorcycles. It's something very inspiring. :) Cheers.
@RACER_TV that's my point: the things that you make nowadays and call "café-racers" are *not* real café-racers like in the days, but at most Starbucks-poseurs, not made to race between cafés, but to pose st the local Starbucks. That is, if you even ride that far, because many are just bibelots to decorate some hipster's living room. :-(
We who have lived the times of real café-racers are dying out of age, so in thet future, nobody will know what real café-racers were and will believe that today's hipster contraptions were the thing when they are actually the opposite in spirit. I find that sad... 😞
Performance is the point of a real café-racer. That's why my Duke is much more café-racer than anything you can made. And it's good, as I just have to change a very few detailds to make it perfect. And I don't need to make it so ugly as I made so many café-racers in search for speed and stability in twisties. :-)
An example: the ugly empty space under the seat that's so fashionable among today's faux "café-racers". Some, few, of the café-racers of tje days has it because it's where the battery and the air filter were located and so that empty space was a consequence of removing the battery and changing the air filter for velocity stacks. However, removing the battery was only possible if the bike had a magneto and a kick starter, and I doubt very much that modern café-racers have that. So, if you remove the battery from under the seat, a good low and centred position, you have to move it higher, like under the back of the seat which worsen the position of the centre of gravity, something you would never will in a real café-racer.
And the 💩 tyres with 💩 grip and 💩 stability compared to any today's sport tyre is a heresy, a blasfemy to the real café-racer spirit, that's 100% sure...
Not sure I agree with all your points, but it's an interesting video nonetheless.
7:33 is going to do radical gender reassignment surgery the first time the rider has to really hammer the brakes o_O
Loool. Thank you my friend for sharing your opinion. :) Cheers.
@@RACER_TV Leather skinned solo seats are just fashion in the vintage days the solo saddle seats were padded and sprung double or single. Worked on a ton of bobbers trailer bikes and those guys cannot handle 200km in the seat often but use them to bar hop mostly and pose or vogue out LOL!
Ever notice how many cafe racers and customs don't have space for a passenger and the riders all look like tryhards. Ridiculous 😂
@bopeep268 I bet you drive a Toyota. Loool. If everyone thought like you, cars like the Jaguar E type, or the Porsche 911, would never have been created. What I want to say, is that true passion doesn't have to follow logic or common sense. On the contrary. What is normally beautiful, defies conventionality. :) Cheers.
Fun fact : this guys who spoke up didn’t have any cafe racer, so he can talk to much like an expert 😂😂
Loool. Important Fact: You are new in this Channel, and don't know the guy that talk to much like an expert. :) Cheers.
I don't know if he owns one, but he clearly has not lived or known the times of real café-racers as his concept is very far away from what it was in the days...
i like a full stock bike . but that's just me..... i still like to see what people can do but hard to say no to a sexy bike , !!!!!!
Thank you my friend for sharing your perspective. :) Cheers.