Cafe Racer with Asian spirit

When we talk about Cafe racer The image that first comes to mind is that of a Tough man, on the back of a British motorbike from the sixties and clad in a leather jacket. But what happens when the Cafe Racer is Japanese? To find out what the japanese coffee, the best thing is to take a look at this short documentary that they have produced about the coffee scene in Tokyo.

One of the main arguments is that, no matter how much money you invest in your motorcycle, if you do not complement it with the appropriate clothing, the table is incomplete. Even detracting from the motorcycle. Of course this is said by the pilot of a 1959 Triton, the sumum of the most British Cafe Racer. At the other extreme is the couple in which both drive a Cafe Racer, both dress according to the established canons. But they do ride Japanese bikes, which are one step ahead when it comes to reliability and rideability when compared to the original Cafe Racer.

This, we can extrapolate to any other tribe / biker family. By one side are the purists, who consider it almost in bad taste to talk about the money invested in their motorcycle. These same ones coexist with very special motorcycles, with "delicate" mechanics to maintain, but they are willing to sacrifice to maintain that stamp. On the other side are those who, attracted by that stamp, they condition it to their interpretation, they try to avoid all the complicated that is associated with that authenticity and they are happier than anyone.

Sure one Honda GB250 Clubman and a Yamaha RS 400 They can be as Cafe Racer as a Triton if at the end of it all you have personalized it with your ideas and with your money. Because ultimately the Cafe Racer movement was / is about motorcycles modified by and for users. Passionate about the motorcycle and everything that surrounds it.

Cafe Racers Japan from Christopher Andrew Cooke on Vimeo.

One last note; I have never considered myself a member of any urban movement or tribe. But due to circumstances I have moved a few years with people from the Mod scene and I can assure you that what the interviewees say in this documentary is applicable to almost any motorcycle family. And for the most clueless, the music that plays is all from Moby, as credited at the end of the video.