Whenever we hook up with a new builder we always try to get the human angle. Sure, the donor, the spec, the journey of the build is all good stuff, but what about the Who? and the Why? – and we get some interesting responses, but this is intro from Sven of Cafe2Ride in Germany has gotta be one of our favourites. “…first of all I would say…we are real men. We have beards and love the smell of gasoline !” Perfect.
This Brat-style Honda CB750 F2 is Cafe2Ride’s most recent build, and it makes the perfect backdrop for Sven, his Dad and Thomas’ story of how C2R came into being.
“I think it all started in the mid nineties, when my dad went to the nearest Ducati store to buy a brand new Ducati Monster 900. That thing was a killer, the sound, the looks and almost everything made the bike look perfect without touching the stock design. That really started my love for motorcycles and especially for Ducatis, that’s why my first bike had to be a Duc as well.”
“Then, one sad (and I think rainy) day in 2002, my dad sold the Monster to buy a BMW K1200RS. I wasn’t old enough to ride motorcycles back than so there was no need to keep the Ducati next to the Beemer. Over the years I lost my love for the motorcycles I had when my dad owned the Duc, because I was busy at school and I really never liked the BMW enough to say….“Wow. Look thats a beautiful bike!“ It was just a bike in my young eyes.
“But then, just as I was done with my drivers license, my dad bought a verrrrrry used looking Moto Guzzi V50 Monza, that we started to restore together and that is the unofficial “C2R#1″. That phase of restoring the bike and getting to know how all the mechanics work was so exciting and enjoyable that the love for motorcycles and especially the love for those old italian beauties was born!”
“In Winter 2007, when we were in the restoring phase I really had to buy myself my first Motorcycle, the Ducati 900SS in a pretty stupid condition. Blue painted, some rust here and there and superbike handlebars, and everything wrong with it. But what the heck…it was a Ducati and it was mine 
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“So I rode it for four years like that until in Winter 2011 I said: ‘Well, lets give the Ducati a whole new makeover, and enjoy the time, like we had during our Guzzi restoration’ A friend of mine, who instantly fell in love with the V50 Monza and the idea of building a Cafe Racer out of the Ducati quickly joined forces with me – and that was the day when we officially started to build the bikes under the name “Cafe2Ride – Vintage Motorcycle Customs”. That’s my dad Andreas, my buddy Thomas and myself (Sven).”
“From restoring the Moto Guzzi, over falling in love with the scene for old and vintage custom bikes to now as everything has evolved over the few years, we are right now working on motorcycle number six. And I hope there are more to come, way more! The main motivation behind the whole thing I guess, is to escape the everyday life and to enjoy a good time with the people you love and the people you share the same interests with.”
“With today’s plastic motorcycles, which happen to look almost all the same, you can only talk how much horsepower you have or whats the top speed. …soulless and unnecessary stuff. Old bikes have a charm and a soul, and that is why we love to tinker with these bikes and not the new ones and the best part about it is you really can see how an engine works and how the mechanics work together to move a bike in the direction you want.”
