Kaffeemaschine 10: A Yamaha to yearn for

So far, motorcycle customiser Axel Budde has based his café racer creations on Moto Guzzis – but his 10th ‘Kaffeemaschine’ began its life as a Yamaha…

The donor Yamaha SR500 was given its radical transformation into a desirable café racer under Budde’s ‘Kaffeemaschine’ label, with support from Hamburg-based marque specialist Kedo. “Although the SR has been around for more than 35 years and all possible customisation styles exist, I've only seen a few SRs coherently given the café racer makeover,” says Budde. His company not only fashions a new aluminium tank and seat to complete the conversion, but also puts around 250 man-hours into perfecting the smaller and more intricate details. The final result is named ‘Mezzomille’ (meaning ‘half-thousand’), and mimics the style of the late 1970s.

Classic motorcycles can be found for sale in the Classic Driver Market.