Coffee at 2,000 feet with Kaffeemaschine 17

For its 17th project, German motorcycle workshop Kaffeemaschine has transformed another Moto Guzzi Le Mans 3 into a stunning custom café racer, incorporating many of the company’s trademark styling cues. And, as you can tell from the pictures, that’s no bad thing…

Some of the more eagle-eyed Classic Driver faithful might recognise the lines of ‘Kaffeemaschine Nummer 17’. It shares more than a common resemblance to another Kaffeemaschine, and that’s no accident: it was commissioned by an American customer who fell for ‘Nummer 7’s’ simple lines and characteristic details (note the bar-end indicators and chromed fuel-cap) when it was first revealed in 2012.

Breathe easy

Specifying a colour scheme of Jaguar Blue with brown leather for his own bike, the client asked for a bike similar in design to #7, but gave Kaffeemaschine owner Axel Budde a degree of creative freedom. He was also intent on the bike going just as well as it looks, so Budde chose a V11 engine bored out to 1,100cc then “played all the tricks”, as he puts it, to boost its output to 95HP – more than enough for a bike weighing 183kg. There was one desired change that Budde wasn’t able to execute, however: “Unfortunately, I couldn’t really lambda-set the carburation like I normally would, as Mr. Hunter is living on a 2,000m elevation in Colorado!”

Photos: Kaffeemaschine

You can find a selection of classic Moto Guzzis listed for sale in the Classic Driver Market.