Cafe Racer / Scrambler Bikes

[Ruffian]

Not scrambler but air cooled old school - highly modded GPZ 750 turbo. Missile fast in a straight line.

Bit like an artic otherwise really

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I always loved these. Would be awesome to add one to my collection but getting harder to find.

 

[KaneH]

Does anybody know what sort of money is actually in these “pro built” cafe racers/bobbers etc? I’ve tried having a look online but very little info available from what I can see, at least for fresh built bikes.

 

[Gragson]

If you manage to wade through the beards and tats there are example bikes and details of bike builders that do it for a living also. Also bikes for sale. Used to have a forum but not logged on for ages as was so dead..

https://thebikeshed.cc/

 

[cumbriasteve]

If I had a camera phone back in the 70's I could have shown you what I used to build, have got a few rubbish photo's of various machines I built and owned which I will get around to scanning and tidying up one day.

This is a Triton I was about finished, my fun was more building than riding them but there are a couple I now wish I had kept.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I remember a local guy who I bought parts from when I was repairing or building my Triton's.
Behind his house he had two large home built wooden sheds huts and it was out of this world what he had, mostly Triumpn and Nortan.

He had wooden shelves with at least 30 triumph engines, mostly pre unit but some unit I think, racks and racks of petrol tanks, seats, gearboxes, frames and hundreds of cables and wiring looms.

We nearly came to blows when I returned a faulty mag and he blamed me of swapping it which I hadn't so never went again, no one I spoke to in later years knew what had happened to it all, stating he had went very anti social and had simply locled up the sheds.

All I know is the sheds have gone and I assume the contents were bought out.

 

[wookie]

Which one. Assume the new one.

Couldn't watch the original. Missed so much of the important plot info. The newer version with Daniel Craig did an excellent job though.

Heresy! The original Swedish version is far better. Watch it in the original language with the subtitles on, I actually prefer the extended versions that are effectively 2 of each of the original 6 episodes joined together.

Anyway does anyone have a barrel and head for a BSA M20/21 sat on a shelf they don't want ?

 

[Rannsachair]

Anyway does anyone have a barrel and head for a BSA M20/21 sat on a shelf they don't want ?

No, though needs some fins brazed: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BSA-M20-...=item2873f0a82d:g:NFMAAOSw~T9aW3sb:rk:18:pf:0

Though does not seem that long ago that I turned down a complete BSA M20 for that sort of money.....

 

[ronan]

Anyway does anyone have a barrel and head for a BSA M20/21 sat on a shelf they don't want ?

Have you tried Stuart Bray or wardepartment ? I bought bits off them over the years and they were ok.


http://www.wardepartment.co.uk/parts-spares/

 

[ronan]

Though does not seem that long ago that I turned down a complete BSA M20 for that sort of money.....

Yeah i remember when you could pick them up for beer money, no one wanted them. Then the military reenactors pounched on them and the values have gone through the roof, up to 6k for a good one .

 

[ronan]

Always liked the Yamaha big singles, the sr and xt's. Good bases for cafe racer builds.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Heresy! The original Swedish version is far better. Watch it in the original language with the subtitles on, I actually prefer the extended versions that are effectively 2 of each of the original 6 episodes joined together.

Anyway does anyone have a barrel and head for a BSA M20/21 sat on a shelf they don't want ?

I did. After reading the books. Found it lacking in details. Left the story full of holes.
Each to there own.

 

[Gragson]

I always loved these. Would be awesome to add one to my collection but getting harder to find.

I've had loads of them over the years, I've also added to their scarcity by totalling a few and nearly myself once.
Still makes me laugh in my lid when the turbo kicks in - like a massive 2 stroke

 

[merryman]

Yeah i remember when you could pick them up for beer money, no one wanted them. Then the military reenactors pounched on them and the values have gone through the roof, up to 6k for a good one .

I am old enough to remember when Pride & Clark advertised ex-army M20s for £36 every month in the motorcycle mags. My father, an ex dispatch rider, always rated the M20 though he used a Tele rigid Matchless for Army trials. He said in Italy the M20 could climb an Alpine pass without altering the air/fuel mixture half way up, important if you were liable to get shot at.

 

[james butler]

scrambler bikes yes but probably not what your thinking.
cafe racers i dont like, i respect that someone may have built it that way for a purpose but i really do think it spoils the look of a bike.
then again it may be my dealing with those that own them and havent built them themselves that maybe my biggest issue.
but each to their own
a lad at work goes on and on about them but he wants to buy one at incredible cost and seems more of a bragging right then appreciation of the bike.
my neighbor on the other hand builds them out of cat c/d recovered bikes and sells them for good money so i see that as the propper way of doing it.

 

[wookie]

No, though needs some fins brazed: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BSA-M20-...=item2873f0a82d:g:NFMAAOSw~T9aW3sb:rk:18:pf:0

Though does not seem that long ago that I turned down a complete BSA M20 for that sort of money.....

That's actually not bad for the money, it would do at a push but I should have been clearer in what I'm looking for...

Ideally I want a late unlinered M21 barrel, the head can be off a M20 or M21 it doesn't matter.

@ronan yeah I've looked at Stuart Bray & WarDepartment before, either I'm getting old or something but some of the prices are getting crazy stupid.

 

[Gwil]

I bought my first copy of Motorcycle Mechanics in 1967. The two readers specials on the first page were a featherbed framed Vincent and a similarly framed Ariel Square 4. That was when we really built cafe racers.

An old R80 BM with fake carbon and Chinese shocks is NOT a cafe racer. Never will be.

 

[wookie]

I did. After reading the books. Found it lacking in details. Left the story full of holes.
Each to there own.

As per most film's based on books, the books are far superior. I've read all 3 multiple times but when you consider the length of each book there is no way to get all that detail into a film. It's no wonder entire sub plots are left out.

 

[ronan]

I am old enough to remember when Pride & Clark advertised ex-army M20s for £36 every month in the motorcycle mags. My father, an ex dispatch rider, always rated the M20 though he used a Tele rigid Matchless for Army trials. He said in Italy the M20 could climb an Alpine pass without altering the air/fuel mixture half way up, important if you were liable to get shot at.

A friend of mine worked in Pride and Clarke for a while, must have been back in the 60's, before he came back here to get hitched.

 

[brightspark]

A friend of mine worked in Pride and Clarke for a while, must have been back in the 60's, before he came back here to get hitched.

they were flogging all the sinclare c 5 hoover motors wernt they

 

[roofman]

All this talk of bikes has me chomping at the bit here...I keep rotating my trickle charger around the bikes each weekend like a Heroin addict waiting for his dealer