HOW TO BUILD A CAFE RACER

By Charlie Trelogan | On Cargo Collective

I’m a car designer by trade: I spend my time working out how to make machinery look as good as it can. Designers are creative people by nature, so we crave the opportunity to be as free as possible in our work. We also have many parameters, tests and boundaries to refer to, to make sure we deliver the best possible ‘product.’

These guidelines are just that—guidelines. Designing a café racer is as much about art as science, and each bike is different in its own way. It reflects the environment, the era and the owner of the bike. Yet there are things we can do to ensure that the result will look solid and professional.

I’ve been influenced by motorbike design for several years, and have built my own café racer. I based it on the same observations that I’ve sketched out here. Hopefully they’ll inspire some fellow builders to invest time into the aesthetics of their project.

To illustrate my points, I’m using the Bike EXIF calendar cover star: Mateusz Stankiewicz’s Honda CX500, built in conjunction with the garage Eastern Spirit.

THE FOUNDATION The foundation contributes most to the structure, direction and general ‘easiness on the eye’ that makes a bike a café racer. First, the simple stuff. Café racers are defined by the flat line that runs front to back, giving an uncompromising look and lending strength and speed to the design. It’s a good idea, though not vital, that this line remains uninterrupted. (The perfect example of this rule being broken well is the Wrenchmonkees’ Laverda 750.)

This line is the first one your brain will ‘see’ and will guide your eyes along the length of the bike. If there are kinks and breaks then it eliminates continuity and, like bumps in the road, makes the experience uncomfortable. This powerful base sits above two fairly evenly sized wheels.

THE ‘CUT-OFF POINTS’ These lines are the wheel centerlines. Anything going beyond these lines will serve to make the bike seem ‘odd.’ Too much over the rear wheel will make the bike seem rear-heavy and poorly planned. It’s quite common for bikes to do this, however, and it’s not a big deal if crossed over by a small amount—as in our example.

If you do go too far over, then minimize the depth of the seat or cowl. There’s nothing worse than a big cowl hanging over the back end of the bike. The front is less of a problem but front fenders cut on this line look best.

HEIGHT LIMIT Just as important as the cut-off points. The height limit gives a planned look to the design. Defined as the highest point on the fuel tank, anything protruding much above this point will take away from a café racer’s sleek and streamlined looks. It will also serve to make your bike look more like a tracker and less like a café bike. Keep it low and keep it clean. Combined with the cut-off points, this imaginary box should contain all the major elements of your design.

THE ‘BONE LINE’ Hugely important in car design, it is very important here as well. The bone line serves to describe where the widest point of your bodywork is. This is where your reflections on your seat, tank and lamp will fall. Think of the ‘bone’ as the 3D brother to the more 2D foundation line. They work together as a team. Here the center of the lamp is right on the bone line: A great decision that ties the whole upper together.

If you get anything right it should be this. It immediately makes the bike look like it really belongs together and is not just a jumble of parts. Next time you see a bike (or indeed a car) you like, take some time to see if it has this central ‘bone’ and where it sits. This Honda is a perfect example and, though it’s not the first thing you might realize you see, it’s why this is not just a good bike, but a great one.

THE VISUAL WEIGHT This is where the main ‘mass’ of the bike is, and it can be split into two parts. Firstly, the main mass is the engine—including the cylinder/crank/gearbox, or anything towards the front of the subframe. This is your tank parameter. A tank longer than this will look overly big and heavy, and a smaller tank will look like the bike has outgrown it—almost bobber-like.

Secondly, and just as importantly, is the axis of the visual weight, seen here in the middle. This is usually defined by the middle of the engine, or more accurately, the middle of the cylinder/piston. This will define the ideal shape of the tank. The peak of the tank should fall right on or very close to the axis. It is amazing how much more robust and ‘sporting’ a bike looks when this is incorporated into the design.

It applies equally for bikes such as Hondas, Kawasakis and Yamahas that have inclined engine blocks. The axis still falls through the middle of the cylinder at that angle. The result is that these Japanese bikes look better with tanks that peak towards the very front of the bike and taper off towards the rider.

THE SWOOP Ideally you want the seat and the tank to look like they belong together. We can do this by making sure the curve of the tank flows into the curve of the cowl. This will make it look almost like the tank and the seat were once a single piece of metal, and someone scooped out a place for a rider to sit. It makes it look intentional and tight.

PRIMARY ANGLES Often overlooked, the differing angles on a frame with those of the forks, shocks and other parts can make a spaghetti of lines which could ruin all your hard work. Be considerate of them when adding new parts. Here this bike has a brand new subframe to clean up the wobbly CX500 original. The builder has very cleverly matched the angle of the front fork, making it look cohesive. Angles are something we take great care of when designing cars too.

SECONDARY ANGLES Even in small areas, the builders have tried to make parallels of two or more angles on different parts. This is some subliminal stuff right here. You might not notice it—but you can bet that your brain does on a certain level.

FORK DISTANCE Keep the front wheel as ‘tucked in’ as possible. It gives a bike a ‘pouncing’ and aggressive stance. I know a fork swap might seem like a good idea, but don’t make it look like a chopper, OK?

I have seen bikes that match this guide to the letter that look great. And I have seen bikes that disregard them totally, and still look amazing. Following these guidelines will give you a base on which to work and help understand why a bike looks like it does.

Once aware of these ground rules, it’s up to you how you choose to stick to them—or break them.

from   

Hauts sommets / High altitudes

Depuis dix ans, le Rallye du Mexique permet au Championnat du monde des Rallyes FIA de prendre un peu de hauteur ! En effet, les spéciales mexicaines sont situées entre 1800 et 2800 mètres d’altitude.

Leon de los Aldamas, 6^e plus grande ville du pays avec près d’1,5 million d’habitants, se trouve à 1815 mètres d’altitude. Les montagnes alentour, dans lesquelles sont tracées les spéciales du Rally Guanajuato Mexico, culminent à près de 3000 mètres. L’intégralité du parcours se situe entre 1800 et 2800 mètres, des altitudes inquiétantes pour les ingénieurs-moteur et déroutantes pour bon nombre de pilotes.

Né dans les Hautes-Alpes et moniteur de ski, Sébastien Ogier est un vrai montagnard, mais son équipier Jari-Matti Latvala est sans doute moins habitué aux hautes altitudes. Le plus haut sommet de Finlande, l’Haltitunturi, qui se situe en Laponie à la frontière norvégienne, culmine à 1324 mètres ! Et côté Norvège, le pic se trouve dans le massif Galdhopiggen à 2469 mètres. C’est aussi le plus haut sommet d’Europe du Nord.

Kris Meeke et Elfyn Evans vont découvrir le Rallye du Mexique et les hautes montagnes de l’état de Guanajuato. Le plus haut sommet du Royaume-Uni se trouve en Ecosse, le Ben Nevis, perché à 1344 mètres d’altitude. Au Pays de Galles, chez Evans, le point culminant est le Mount Snowdon – Yr Wyddfa en celte - à 1085 mètres, qui se trouve dans le parc national Snowdonia, tout près des spéciales du Wales Rally GB 2013. Le plus haut sommet d’Irlande du Nord culmine à 850 mètres (Slieve Donard) et celui d’Irlande s’élève à 1041 mètres (Carrauntuohill).

Thierry Neuville a grandi près du massif des Hautes Fagnes qui accueille le point culminant de Belgique et de la région wallonne, le Signal de Botrange, à 694 mètres d’altitude ! En Australie, chez Chris Atkinson, le Mount Kosciuszko culmine à 2228 mètres d’altitude dans la cordillère australienne, en Nouvelle Galles du Sud. Un sommet nommé en l’honneur du Polonais Tadeusz Kosciuszko, peut-être un ancêtre du pilote Michal… En Pologne justement, le point culminant est le Rysy (2503 mètres), dans les Carpates, à la frontière slovaque. Côté tchèque, le plus haut sommet se situe lui-aussi à la frontière avec la Pologne, c’est le Sniejka, à 1602 mètres.

Parmi les pilotes WRC engagés sur ce rallye, c’est bien le Mexicain Benito Guerra qui semble le plus aguerri aux hautes altitudes. Les montagnes entourant Leon ne sont que des collines à l’échelle du Mexique ! Le pays est traversé par deux principales chaînes montagneuses, la Sierra madre occidentale et la Sierra madre orientale où trois sommets dépassent 5000 mètres d’altitude, le Pico de Orizaba (5610 mètres), le 2^e plus haut sommet d’Amérique du Nord, ou le Popocatépetl (5426) et l’Iztaccihuatl (5452 m) près de Mexico City.

Rally Mexico has been taking the World Rally Championship to new heights for a decade, with stages that climb to as high as 2,800 metres!

Leon de Los Aldamas, Mexico’s sixth biggest city with a population of almost 1.5 million, sits at an altitude of 1,815 metres. The surrounding mountains, which host this week’s stages, peak at practically 3,000 metres, while the entire route runs between 1,800 and 2,800 metres. That’s a big concern, of course, for the teams’ engine experts and frequently a little disconcerting for the crews…

Former ski instructor Sébastien Ogier was born near Gap and grew up in the Alps, so the altitude shouldn’t be a problem for him. In contrast, his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala hails from Finland where the highest spot – the Halti Fell in Lapland, near the Norwegian border –rises to just 1,324m! The highest point in Norway (2,469m) is Galdhopiggen, the tallest mountain in northern Europe.

Rally Mexico rookies Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans from the United Kingdom can claim Scotland’s Ben Nevis as their most prominent feature (1,344m), but Evans will find nowhere higher in his native Wales than Mount Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa, 1,085m) in the Snowdonia National Park. Meanwhile, the highest areas of land in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are Slieve Donard (850m) and Carrauntoohil (1,041m) respectively.

Thierry Neuville grew up in Belgium’s Hautes Fagnes region which boasts the country’s biggest hill, the Signal de Botrange (694m), while Australian Chris Atkinson can point to Mount Kosciuszko (2,228m) in New South Wales. That was named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko, possibly an ancestor of rally driver Michal from Poland where the highest mountain is the Rysy (2,503m) in the High Tatras range near the Slovakian border. The highest peak in the Czech Republic is the Sněžka (1,602 metres), on the border with… Poland.

Of the WRC drivers contesting this year’s Rally Mexico, Benito Guerra is probably the least likely to suffer from altitude sickness, although the mountains near Leon are mere hills compared with the country’s other peaks! Indeed, Mexico’s geography features the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental where three mountains exceed 5,000 metres: the Pico de Orizaba (5,610m, North America’s second biggest mountain), the Popocatépetl (5,426m) and Iztaccihuatl (5,452m) near Mexico City.

CORONAS MODIFICADAS GILERA RAT

The grease smeared workshop phone rings, our hero answers, a mysterious Spanish exchange occurs betwixt him and a tattooed, moustachioed mystery man and the mission begins. A cross town sprint past gnarly hip flask hobos to an accomplices den for cash, then on again he dashes, arriving at a lock-up to acquire some alternative transportation to his weary legs. Then it gets interesting… He rattle roars away on the true star of the film, a gorgeous custom 58′ Gilera 150 SS.

To the streets they take, seeing off the local traffic light wannabes and carving the pot holed streets to a soundtrack of The Black Keys, Oasis and four stroke single. Bike left lent against the wall “The Purchase” begins. Our tattooed chihuahua wielding dealer inspects the readies and hands over the mysterious item of our heroes desire and finally the rush can wane. Home he cruises to Pink Floyd’s burning bridges. He saunters into his shed and gently pins the item, a rare Gilera horn, to a work in progress restoration. Mission accomplished. Roll credits.

Meet the men of Coronas Modificadas, a new custom workshop based out of Buenos Aires. It began the way most crews do, a serious hobby, a collection of like minded friends, and a passion for the unique. A Gilera 150 SS certainly qualifies as unique here on The Bike Shed. The groups creative streak resulted in the short film ‘The Purchase’ that showcases this build and Gabriel’s obsessive passion for every detail of these rare little machines.

Gabriel started the crew in 2006 after restoring a variety of bikes for friends who were inspired by his personal ride, an immaculate standard Gilera 150. One friend coveted the little Italian 150 so much that he recruited Gabriel to create a matching machine for him. The problem was the models scarcity, Gabriel had to travel over 700km to purchase the machine in these pictures. Upon being presented with the scruffy single his mate decided it would never scrub up into the original condition he craved so he left it with Gabriel. With the pristine standard variant already in his garage, Gabriel decided to go custom with the unwanted donor.

With the bike on the workbench in his Beatle’s poster clad garage Gabriel cut the frame, changed the dampers and swapped the standard forks out for a parallelogram unit that transforms the front end of the bike. Combined with the high mounted headlight on monogrammed struts the face of the bike is now unique and aggressive. The front fender was jettisoned and the surviving rear was sanded and bobbed, stopping well short of its protruding mounts, a nod to what was.

The tank, headlight and bars were sanded down to bare metal and the frame and wheels finished in gloss black. The monochrome theme is fired by white pipe wrap on the unmuffled header and flashes of bronze in the custom fabricated kick start, shift lever, fork nut, brake and clutch levers.

The tank and body artwork was applied by the brilliantly named artist Digga Crimson, who co designed the Gilera badge/skull and cross wrench combo with Gabriel’s master graphic designer brother. Gabriel now rides his rat Gilera more than its standard brethren, the inevitable custom weight loss sees it eek out an extra 10km/h over the standard model and reach the giddy highs of 110km/h. Not fast, admits Gabriel, but combined with the ever present potential of gearbox explosion and the racket from the straight through pipe creates an inexplicable adrenalin rush.

Many an Argentinian bystander has inquired after acquiring the bike, testament to the countries burgeoning romance with the custom bike scene, but Gabriel is unmoved preferring to keep his Gilera’s as a remarkable odd couple.

See more from Coronas Modificadas including their video ‘The Purchase” on their Facebook page.

lavage