Back in the fifties, riding a motorcycle might have meant you were a crazy young rebel, like Marlon Brando in the film, “The Wild One”. Or more likely, like most working people, you couldn’t afford a car and wanted independent transport that didn’t need pedalling everywhere!
But for those young men and women who enjoyed the thrills, freedom, and pure style of motorcycling, the most stylish and cool bike of all was the Café Racer. They spent as much time posing with their sporty but stripped-down motorbikes as they did riding them between espresso bars.
Now Alastair Walker’s new book, “The Café Racer Phenomenon” recaptures the magic, telling the story of the last 50 years with interviews and images, some of them never published before. The Café Racer style was popular till the 1980s, with models like the Triton created by specialist builders.
When the faster Japanese sports bikes attracted riders away from the old-fashioned British-built machines, the Café Racer style seemed doomed. But in recent years, the classic style of motorbikes like the Velocette Viper or the BSA Gold Star is making a comeback.
You don’t even have to spend hours fettling an antique, as your grandfather might have done. New models with all the looks of the old Café Racers give you the fun without the headaches, as modern brakes, engines and suspension make for a safer, more reliable ride. And no, you won’t have to kickstart them!
“The Café Racer Phenomenon” is available from Veloce at £14.99 plus postage. And if you’re tempted to get a little motorcycling style into your life, remember you can have a free motorcycle ride on us, either at a training centre near you, or at the Carole Nash International Motorcycle and Scooter Show at the NEC this November.
