Café Racer – A light and lightly powered motorcycle that has been modified for speed and handling rather than comfort.
Motorcycle culture in South Africa is strange. Gone are the days when the word “biker” was associated with burly bearded tattooed types, who wore sleeveless leather vests adorned with gang patches. Instead, to a large degree, the biker culture has become more a status than a lifestyle. More “I ride to work sometimes” than “I work to ride”.
You still find the aforementioned rebels at the odd biker rally, but for the most part, the culture has changed. While the passion still remains, many a rider has very little understanding of his, or her, steed. To put it bluntly, motorcycles have become yuppie playthings, devoid of the grit once associated with twisting a throttle. Pleasingly though, there is a movement to revive the true heart of the motorcycling rebel. One, that see’s the rejuvenation of the café racer culture of the 40’s and 50’s. A movement that, to me at least, is injecting lifestyle back into the status of biking.
Built largely by tearaway rockers in post-war England, these Café Racers were stripped-down, British-made road bikes, fitted with dropped handlebars, rear-set footpegs, aluminium racing fuel tanks and selfish single seats, and were at the epicentre of rebellious European urban youth culture.
Unconstrained by today’s tiresome bureaucracy, they would meet at local hot spots, or cafés, and race one another up and down suitably unsuitable public roads with impunity. Dressed in the standard rocker uniforms of impeccably coiffed hair, crossover leather jackets, jeans and high-top boots, an inadequate, cork-lined crash helmet and pair of ex-RAF flying goggles, they would set out to crack 100 mph, or the “ton” as it was then known.
But a rebellious youth culture fuelled by rock and roll wasn’t the only ingredient that led to the Café Racer.
Between 1900 and 1960 transportation routes in England were going through changes. The Roads Act of 1920 meant every car on the street would have to pay a tax, but with that tax the government could go about repairing and maintaining what was becoming a fractured, cracked, and failing road system. During those 60 years, the government built over 1000 kilometres of bypasses. This in turn creating more traffic circles, more loops, and more curves a vehicle could take at high speeds. With roads getting better and cars getting more affordable, motorcycles started to fall by the wayside as the preferred method for inexpensive transport. But for a group of teens looking to rebel, two wheels, loud pipes and a freshly paved highway system seemed the perfect playground.
Fast forward to the present, and we’re seeing the Café Racer scene boom once again.
This can be attributed to people wanting something that isn’t a classic chopper, a conventional, modern road bike or an ultra-high-performance sports machine. They want something with a little history. And they want to build the bike themselves. This intimacy of spending time in the shed is the real catalyst. It melds the status and passion into one. It forces the biker and the artist together in a way that makes all the sweat worth it. It’s slowly re-adding the grit and grime that’s been lost. But its the lifestyle, too, that’s being adopted. The very living element of the Café Racer culture. Fashion is slowly starting to mimic the look of the London Teddy Boys. We’re becoming more attuned to the coffee shop culture. And we’re merging them all with the Café Racer we’ve spent hours building ourselves. Destination coffee shops are springing up everywhere. Places where like-minded riders can meet up and relive the ‘building’ process. Businesses are being built on the trend supporting the Café Racer. And they’re using this to incorporate things like craft beers, hand-made trinkets and clothing – items that have been crafted for purpose, as opposed to soulless mass-produced ‘stuff’. It’s this exclusivity that is the attraction. It’s a new type of ‘cool’ that everyone can be a part of, but sadly only a few will understand why they truly want to!
by Shane Oosthuizen
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