Cafe racers on TV?

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twowheelinjim

twowheelinjim
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(If this topic may already be covered so please excuse my ignorance.:D)
While sitting around in the morning a few days ago, I happened to catch a TV show on the Discovery channel about cafe racers. At first I was thinking it was a re-run of American Choppers but through shear boredom I decided to watch a little of the show. I had to sit up to actually believe what was happening.. This particular featured a bike shop called Union Cycle? I think it was in washington or Oregon. The guy from "Glass from the Past" was also on this show. It was very intertaining to say the least. Has anyone seen this yet? I have to admit I have been slacking off on my own build and this show has inspired me to get back in the shop.
 
It originally aired on Discovery HD only, now Velocity TV. Channel 631 on Fios.
One of the shops on season 1, Loaded Gun Customs, is near me. Good stuff on that show. Magazine is good too.
 
I believe it's called Cafe Racer...I was talking to my bike mentor last evening and he was saying it's a great show but at times it pisses him off- like when they cut up a single owner sand cast Honda 750 and were throwing good used parts in the trash bin......
I need to find the show online as we don't have cable in the hills and I'm too cheap for sattelite.
 
They do piss me off as well. Bryan Fuller, of Chip Foose and Two Guys Garage fame, cut the perfect '69 CB750 up....while the original owner watched.
Some of them use the torch to remove parts instead of wrenches. Then toss the half melted parts, and whatever got in the way of the torch, into a smoking pile to be discarded.
To each his own I guess, they are superstars you know. Custom Cafe companies making the scene on TV.
I will say that a couple of them are traditional motorcycle builders and keep bikes intact. A few even said something about cutting up old bikes. I wonder what they say behind the scenes.
My uncle, crazy Hinkley trained Triumph guy, asked me once (about the episode he watched), "Why do they cut the tail off, put a mono-shock coil on it, chop the frame for a new seat and then remove the old front end and fab on one from a modern sportbike and only use the engine and, maybe, 2 total feet of original frame instead of putting the engine into a custom frame, which they bascially just made, but the hard way?"
He made a good point.
 
Torching parts that could be given away, traded or resold kind of pisses me off. but I'm all for chopping these old bikes apart. I Could give a rats butt about how they originally looked even if they were new out of the crate.
 
It just gets me how much reality T.V. sucks. On one hand it's an alright show,you see some nice builds, or final product. Not too much of the build itself. I think it would be better if they stuck to one build per show but?? As far as the parts they just chuck across the shop, now thats different. There are alot of people out there that could use these parts, thats where the reality t.v. comes in. I know everybody that saw the episode when they converted the brand new Triumph with all the British Customs parts(which did look nice) then started chucking those zero miles parts into a box without any care in the world lost respect for the guys on the show.
 
The show is just another version of the American Choppers reality TV theme. They show a bunch of people making bikes and edit out most of the good bike building parts of the process. Or like you said before they just cut up perfectly good bikes and start bolting on a bunch of billet shit.

Its the same kind of campy bullshit as the rest of the "reality" tv thats out there. Poor editing, crappy music, really, really stupid confessional style commentary from people.

I watched an episode where a company called Joker Machine "built" a CB750. They guy just re-painted the frame and tins and started adding his "custom" parts. Joker machine makes aftermarket billet aluminum parts for these bikes. But all they ended up doing was putting on every ugly piece of shit they had on the shelves. All they did was turn a few sockets and allen heads. And at the end of the build the guy said he hopes it runs. He didn't touch the motor on it.

My jaw dropped. How could someone who claims to be a motorcycle fabricator or just someone who builds custom bikes overlook something so important as the basic engineering of the bike.

Its just things like this that are very frustrating to watch. They could have made the show so good but ended up just wiping their ass with the idea and concept of what a show about Cafe Racers is all about. I mean they spent 10 minutes talking about the origins of the pompadour haircut.

Here is a picture of the bike they built. Clean and nicely finished granted, but no heart or soul in my opinion.

PHOTO_15619028_29029_2557693_ap.jpg
 
I've mentioned this before, but I looked at a CB550 awhile ago. It was a total piece of shit. The owners selling point was that, "It's the same one Jay LaRossa rides." No, it's the same model he rides and yours is a piece of crap. In the last year the price of twins and any type of "cafe racer" looking bike has gone up in price. Ever notice all the ads for bikes usually say "cafe" or something.
I'm not bashing anyone or any builders, to each their own and it's your bike, do as you wish. I'm just amazed at how shows and creative editing can start a craze...or kill it.
My uncle has be working on British bikes since the late '60's. He is a certified Triumph, Norton mechanic and was trained at Hinkley. So, if you say to him "cafe" you better hold on. He has several Triumphs, BSA, Nortons and a Triton and sold his Vincoti last year, all he built during the '60's and '70's. Doing "the ton" is something he says all the time. To him everything that was made after 1972, not built in England and not parked at a cafe is not a cafe racer. It's a copy of a cafe racer. I said cafe one time and he said, "oh, you're racing the 'ton up boys'? What cafe do you hang at?" ect. He gets very possesive about the term sometimes. Probably 'cuz he was their.
His '62 pre-unit T-120 will only run at full throttle because it's an extreme top end street racer. He bought it from a pal in '68 in England.
My point is, to him, a "cafe" is an original British bike built in the 60's to street race, everything else is a copy. Just like to some a chopper or bobber is a.... but to others they are...
Hell, he road cross country on a '55 Triumph hardtail in '66 and still has it.
Actually he is a pretty weird, but knows his bikes.
 
I guess it's just entertainment for the masses. The average joe doesn't give a damn about building a special bike from himself when he can simply go to a showroom and get something new. I must admit though that it's fun to watch folks on TV working on something I can relate to. My own cafe racer project started more than 15 years ago with a consept and a few ideas.
 

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