The Hipster Bike: Café Racers Explained

By Kumar Saurav · Jan 2014 · 1 min read

Royal Enfield launched its Café racer last month and Triumph motorcycles showed of theirs, which is why it is time ripe for some education.

Developed by: British motorcyclists in 1960s.
Purpose: To race from one café to another, chill and listen to music.
Machine: It’s light and made to speed. Comfort is of least importance in a café racer.
Humped seat: It’s like taking a ride on a double-humped camel.
Smaller mudguards: If you observe carefully, the mud guard of any Café Racer would be almost half the size of any regular bike of the same genre.
Single seater: Café Racers are primarily made as single seaters, however, if your babe is size zero, she can fit in.
Clip-on handles: They are sporty to look at and help in manoeuvring city roads.
Inclining silencer: Though there is no fixed angle of incline that the silencers of the Café Racer come with, they are mostly inclined at a certain angle. The angle in Triumph Thruxton is less while it’s more in the Royal Enfield Continental GT.
Dumps on fuel tank: The dumps on the fuel tank are synonymous to Café Racers. These dumps help the riders grip their knees on the sides of the fuel tank.
Elongated fuel tank: These are nothing like your regular round or oval shaped fuel tanks.
Bar end mirrors: Unlike other motorcycles where the rear view mirrors are somewhat centrally stationed at the handle bar, in a Café Racer, they are at the extreme end of the handle.
Crouching position of riding: You don’t have to sweep back to ride this bike as it’s more like riding a sports bike.
Shorter gear ration: To gain speed quickly, the gears in the Café Racer change quickly.