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 2022, 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…
Black Bullet: Royal Enfield Bullet 500 Café Racer - Prize-Winning “Black Bullet” from Nicolas Baux of MCNC… The Royal Enfield Bullet is nearing a century of continuous production — the longest of any motorcycle model in history. Introduced in 1932, the four-stroke single-cylinder machine […]
Night Fury: Honda CB750 Neo Café Racer - GIT Night Fury 750 from Goldie Innotech Designs… In The Batman (2022) starring Robert Pattinson as the masked avenger of Gotham, a Honda CB-based “Drifter” bike serves as Bruce Wayne’s main mode of transportation […]
Stay Gold: Honda GL1200 Goldwing Café Racer - Aspencade to Café: Black Cycles Australia’s Goldwing Cafe Racer… Today we think of the Honda Goldwing as the quintessential big touring bike — a roadgoing La-Z-Boy loaded with creature comforts of every kind, capable of […]
Top 10 Café Racers of 2024 - We’re following up our list of the Top 10 Custom Motorcycles of 2024 with the most popular café racers we featured this past year, based on traffic and social engagement. Your visits, likes, and engagement […]
Vintage CB-R: Honda CB500/550 Café Racer - 15th Anniversary Build: Retrofitted CB500 from Cafe Cycles… In 1969, the Honda CB750 howled onto the scene as the fastest and most sophisticated motorcycle ever to come out of Japan…and for a price that undercut […]
Sixty2 Street Racer: Ducati Scrambler 400 Custom - 399cc L-twin Ducati from Hardheads Motostudio… The Ducati Scrambler is one of the major success stories in recent motorcycling history. Much like the Monster several decades earlier, the Scrambler aimed for mechanical simplicity and […]
The DocR: Ducati 996 Café Racer - A Real Monster: Dan Benson’s Ducati 996SPS Café… We’ve talked about how certain motorcycles or marques seem to imprint themselves on a young motorcyclist. For Dan Benson of Newport, Rhode Island, there was one […]
HRC Eurosport: Honda CX650E Café Racer - From Aircraft Carrier to Café Racer: A “Cus’Tom Motorcycle” from France… The CX series was quite the departure for Honda. The first prototype of the CX V-twin was built as early as 1973, designed to […]
Quantum Leap: Ducati Monster 900 Endurance Racer - DNF: Street-Legal Nürburgring-er from XTR Pepo… While owning and operating a custom motorcycle workshop may seem like an absolute dream from the outside of the fence, if you talk to any custom bike builder, you’ll […]
Honda Ladybird: DOHC CB750 Cafe Racer - Japanese-Italian Love Story from Jerem Motorcycles… At the 1978 Cologne Motorcycle Show, Honda unveiled their new 16-valve DOHC CB750, the much-anticipated successor to the “Original Superbike,” the SOHC CB750. The new 743cc dual-cam four-cylinder […]
Don’t Look Back: SM Sport SM3 Café Racer - Bali-Built: Treasure Garage’s 400cc Cafe Racer… The SM Sport SM3 is a 400-class roadster available in various parts of Southeast Asia, produced by the major Malaysian distributor and manufacturer MForce. The engine is a 378cc […]
The Last Resurrection: Futuristic Suzuki A100 Café Racer - #1 Cafe Racer at Kustomfest : Father/Son Duo’s Show-Stopping Custom… Introduced in 1966, the Suzuki A100 was a 98cc two-stroke single-cylinder commuter with a rotary-valve intake and an output of ~10 horsepower. As bikes this […]
Big Bore Four: Yamaha XJR1200 Café Racer - A Reborn XJR from RV Workshop… After the introduction of the original Suzuki GSX-R in the mid-1980s, sporting motorcycles began to move quickly toward aluminum frames, monoshocks, liquid-cooled engines, and full fairings — the hallmarks […]
Ristretto: 1500cc Moto Guzzi Muscle Bike - Concentrated Power: Radical Speedshop’s Big-Bore Guzzi… When it comes to Moto Guzzi performance, one name stands out from the crowd: Radical Speedshop of Schwarzenfeld, Germany. The Bronold family has been building, racing, and marketing […]
V-Racer: Harley-Davidson V-Rod Café Racer - The first custom creation to roll out of Donut Garage… In 2002, Harley-Davidson released the V-Rod, the first of the VRSC (V-Twin Racing Street Custom) series — a line of muscle bikes whose 1131cc Revolution […]
