We’re following up our list of the Top 10 Custom Motorcycles of 2022 with the most popular café racers we featured this past year — based on traffic and social engagement.
Your visits, likes, and engagement served as votes, so these bikes were selected according to their popularity among our readership. This is the most objective ranking we could achieve.
Some of these were darlings of social media, accruing thousands of likes on Facebook and Instagram, while others had “long legs,” continuing to garner search traffic month after month. Some are classic, while others stretch the “café racer” label to its very limit. Some are showstoppers, while others boast performance numbers that would stagger the Ton-Up Boys of the 1950s. Two include wood in their bodywork, one is electric, and one boasts forced induction.
Without further ado, here are our Top 10 Cafe Racers of 2021, presented in alphabetical order by builder.
• AMS Garage: “Narasimha” Zero SR
• Atelier MCNC: “La Macchina” Moto Guzzi 850 T3
• Black Cycles: “Soffiato” Ducati 916 Turbo
• Mike Common: Honda CBX1000
• Cool Kid Customs: “Black Forest” Honda CB750F
• Jerem Motorcycles: “Super Sport Tribute” Ducati 848
• Kris Biker Customs: Honda CB750
• Mile Zero Racers: “Clubsport” Honda CB750
• Tex Motorbike: Ducati Monster S2R
• Tumulte: “RC30” Triumph Speed Triple
The Latest Café Racers…
The Dark Horse: Yamaha XS650 Custom - Yasashii Garage’s Yamaha XS650 Custom Roadster… According to the Merriam Webster definition, a dark horse is “a usually little known contender (such as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing.” You could make a […]
Carbon & Alloy: BMW HP2 Sport Custom - “Midnight Dancer” from Cherry’s Company… Introduced in 2008, the BMW HP2 Sport was quite the machine, a modern German sportbike whose 1170cc flat-twin (Boxer) engine made 128 hp — the most powerful Boxer engine ever […]
Alternate Reality: Kawasaki-Meguro KZ79SP Raven - CROWS Performance injects Meguro soul into the KZ1000… Founded in the Shinagawa Ward of Tokyo in 1924, Meguro was a prestige brand that supplied Japanese military and police motorcycles, coming to be known as the […]
Sense of Speed: Royal Enfield GT650 “Kai” - AN-BU Motors builds a Custom World street racer… As a young man, Koichi Fujita of AN-BU Custom Motors was a driver in the Formula Race/FJ1600 and F4 series held at Suzuka Circuit, where he won […]
Lightweight Giant-Killer: Yamaha R5 350 Café Racer - Crane Moto’s 295-lb two-stroke giant-killer… In 1970, Yamaha introduced the R5 350, featuring a steel duplex cradle frame derived from the company’s Grand Prix chassis and a 36-hp two-stroke parallel-twin engine — features that made […]
Light to Black: “Lucenera” Ducati Monster 600 Special - LUCENERA: A tribute to the “Shape” of Light… Luca Pozzato is the headman of GP Design, a Turin-based workshop known for creating turning motorcycles into jewels of contemporary design. His recent Ducati 1260 Diavel “Mu” […]
Perfect Balance: Honda CB1100 Custom - Modern Classic Masterpiece from Wedge Motorcycle… In 2009, forty years after the introduction of the CB750 Four, Honda introduced the CB1100 as a spiritual successor to that iconic machine. The 1100 had many hallmarks of […]
Flying Triple: BMW K75 Custom - Three-cylinder Flying Brick from Black Cycles Australia… The BMW K75 was the 750cc triple-cylinder variant of the company’s K series “Flying Bricks” — nicknamed for the distinct layout of their inline engines. The company wanted […]
Omega Racer: Yamaha “SR534” Café Racer - Few bikes have provoked such a long-term love affair among riders as the Yamaha SR series. Born in the late 1970s from the XT500 enduro, the street-oriented SR400 and SR500 roadsters were Japanese versions of […]
Ducati Banshee: 350cc Two-Stroke Monster - A Japanese-Italian Smoker from Moto Vera… Yamaha’s aptly-named Banshee 350 is one of the most legendary quads of all time. Introduced in 1987, it earned a cult following for the staggering pump-gas power potential […]
Slovakian Supermono: Jawa “JSA 650RR” - Jawa / Suzuki / Aprilia = JSA 650RR… It’s easy to take for granted the opportunities many of us have to own and work on our own motorcycles. Recently we heard from Roman Juriš of […]
“GT1100s” Ducati 1098 Café Racer - Modern Meets Classic: Ronaldo Ferreti’s Ducati 1098 Café Racer… In 2007, Ducati unveiled their new 1098 superbike, boasting a 160-bhp Testastretta Evoluzione engine — the most powerful production V-twin ever made at the time. It […]
Super 6 II: Honda CBX Café Racer - Lys Motorcycles builds a six-cylinder café racer… For the 1979 model year, ten years after the introduction of the revolutionary CB750, Honda released another two-wheeled marvel of engineering, the CBX1000 Super Sport. The mighty CBX […]
ONESPEED RACER: Ducati Monster S4 Café Racer - Alpha Moto builds a GP-inspired Monster… By the year 2000, the air-cooled Ducati Monster 900 — the Italian factory’s best-selling machine — was growing long in the tooth, losing traction to a crop of ever […]
Red Soul Rising: Honda CB750F Café Racer - Jax Garage’s “Soul Red” 750…for sale! In 1979, Honda released the twin-cam CB750F, a 77-hp DOHC evolution of the “Original Superbike” released a decade before. Moto-journalists had previously claimed that a 750/4, while fast in […]
