Though Suzuki cafe racer builds are less common than some other marques, we love platforms like the GS Series — great for budget builds — and the mighty two-stroke GT series. We’re also seeing more 80s sportbike cafe and restomod builds, based on the Katana and GSX-R.
Euro Katana: GSX1100S-Powered Moto Martin - Cafe Racer SSpirit restores a rare French-Japanese kit bike… From 1972 to 1986, France’s Moto Martin (pronounced Marteen) produced full chassis / body kits for an array of 1970-80s superbike engines, effectively marrying Japanese multi-cylinder […]
Indigo Racer: Suzuki GS750 by Crows Performance - “Don’t Postpone Joy…Ride an Iron Horse!” This is the motto of Crows Performance, a workshop in Nasukarasuyama City, Japan, run by our new friend Yoshiki Sawamura. Though they offer a wide range of services — […]
Handbuilt GS: “Tanso” Suzuki GS550 Café Racer - Carbon Café Racer from Mike Mitchum of MCAM Moto… In the spring of 1977, the Suzuki GS550 arrived, following close on the heels of the company’s first four-stroke street bike, the GS750, introduced just six […]
Two-Stroke Titan: Suzuki T500 by Spencer Motoworks - A Tracked Combat Vehicle engineer builds himself a two-stroke custom… During the mid-1960s to 70s, when other manufacturers were touting the straight-line dragstrip performance of their two-stroke screamers — bikes with whisker-wide powerbands and widowmaker […]
Suzuki GS850 Café Racer by MCafeGarage - Sardinian workshop builds a burly shaft-drive café… The Suzuki GS850 combined a bored-out version of the GS750 inline four, the shaft drive from the GS1100, and naked styling reminiscent of the 70s superbikes. While it […]
Super Single: Suzuki DR600 Supermono Café - Eddy Cuccaro’s super single cafe racer for the French Alps… We’ve always been fans of “supermono” motorcycles — a term that came into use to describe a European road racing series for single-cylinder machines with […]
“Frankenstein” Suzuki DR250 Cafe Racer - Hand-built in a simple garage — sometimes without electricity! The Suzuki DR250 “Djebel” was a four-stroke dual-purpose motorcycle named for a mountain in North Africa. The 249cc mountain goat had dual disc brakes, USD forks, […]
Two-Stroke Café Racer: Suzuki GT185 Adventurer - Milwaukee’s Steve Baugrud builds one sweet smoker… In 1973, Suzuki unveiled the GT185 Adventurer, a 21-hp air-cooled two-stroke parallel twin with Ram Air, crank case oil injection, electric start, and a front disc brake. The […]
Bandit Power: Honda “CB1157F” by Butchered Classics - Dave Solomon of Butchered Classics is our favorite mad Englishman, a shed-builder who’s earned an “evil reputation” for building high-powered Frankenbikes that send purists drooling and raving to the madhouse. In 2019 alone, we featured […]
Creativity Mechanized: Suzuki GS650 by Purpose Built Moto - “Hard work or good luck is what you need, and you can only control one of those things.” Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of watching small, one-man operations grow from part-time gigs and […]
2-Stroke Racing Special: Suzuki GT750S Vallelunga - Introduced in 1971, the Suzuki GT750 Le Mans — affectionately known as the “Water Buffalo” or “Kettle”– was the first liquid-cooled production motorcycle from Japan, a 739cc, three-cylinder two-stroke street machine that boasted 67 horsepower […]
Modular Prototype: Suzuki DR650 Cafe Racer / Tracker - It’s a tracker, it’s a cafe racer, it’s both! The Suzuki DR650 has been in production for nearly 30 years, earning a reputation as one of the most rugged, versatile thumpers on the planet. However, […]
Endurance Racer: Suzuki SV650 “Caballo de Hierro” - “Very powerful and light, and with a unique shape…” The Suzuki SV650 is one of the most popular motorcycles in company history, credited with rebirthing the lightweight twins racing class in the United States. The […]
“Alpina” Suzuki T500M Cafe Racer by Paul Courbot - Paul Courbot of Titan Performance rebuilds the T500 he’s owned since age 19! The Suzuki T500 Titan, introduced in 1969, quickly earned a reputation as one of the best big two-strokes of the era, proving […]
Suzuki GS650GT Custom by Esther Schuijt - We love hearing the stories of first-time builders and riders. There’s nothing like the relationship you forge with that first motorcycle you own — particularly when you wrench on the bike yourself. In an era […]
Suzuki GT380 Café Racer by Café Cycles - The Suzuki GT380 was a two-stroke triple with ram air cooling and 38 horsepower on tap. The lighter weight sibling of the GT500 and GT750, this bantamweight smoker makes for one nifty cafe racer candidate. […]
Suzuki GS750 “Zucati” by Justin Page - The Suzuki GS750 was the first four cylinder in the venerable GS series — the company’s first full-fledged foray into four-stroke motorcycles. At its release the GS was the fastest of the 750cc fours […]
Suzuki A100 Cafe Racer: “Halimun” - GP-inspired, 2-stroke tribute to Barry Sheene! The Suzuki A100 was a small displacement 2-stroke that the company called a “sportcycle” built for “sprinting around town.” The 98cc engine was good for 10-hp, pushing the 183-lb […]
Suzuki Bandit 400 Cafe Racer by Jowo Kustom - Bad “Baby Bandit” from Indonesia… The Suzuki GSF400 — aka the Bandit 400 — had a 59-hp inline four derived from the GSX-R400, mounted as a stressed member in a trellis frame. Along with the […]
Suzuki T500 Road Race Tribute by Weberwerks - A street-legal, 2-stroke vintage road racer… In the early 60s, East Germany’s MZ team rider Ernst Degner escaped the Iron Curtain to work for Suzuki, using the knowledge he gained from 2-stroke genius Walter Kaaden […]
Suzuki TS400 Cafe Racer by Metal Works Utah - From two-stroke enduro to smokin’ cafe racer… The Suzuki TS400 Apache was the largest of the Suzuki TS series of two-stroke dual sports — a 277-lb, 34-hp enduro “built to take on the country.” Cycle […]
Suzuki GT550 Cafe Racer by Macdonald Hastings Design (MHD) - Two-Stroke Street Weapon…with Patina If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know we love the smell of two-stroke oil in the morning. Smells like…victory. Enter Ewen Macdonald and his 1974 […]
Suzuki Katana Restomod by dB Customs - Darren Begg of dB Customs has quickly established himself as a leader in world-class restomod builds. His builds often retain the original silhouette and paint scheme of the original, while upgrading the powerplant, suspension, brakes, […]
Suzuki GT380 Café Racer by Keith Carlson - Keith Carlson, who builds out of his home garage in Indiana, has become one of our favorite builders. With a background in vintage motocross, he has a preference for two-stroke street screamers that are, as […]
Suzuki Grasstracker Bigboy by Speedtractor - The Silver Fox – Speedtractor’s Deceptively Simple Suzuki TU250GB. Passion and restraint. Two opposing forces, constantly at play within the mind of the custom motorcycle creator. Too little or too much of either being the […]
Suzuki T500 Titan Cafe Racer - Here at BikeBound, we are suckers for anything 2-stroke. Nothing beats the banshee-scream of an oil-burner, especially if it’s one of the twin or triple 2-stroke street kings of the 70s. Enter Steve Baugrud and […]
Suzuki GSX1100S Katana Restomod by ACP Customs - It’s tough to beat the big air-cooled fours of the 80s — especially when they get the restomod treatment from a skilled builder such as ACP Customs of Ontario, Canada, who built the Suzuki GSX1100S […]
Suzuki GS500 Cafe Racer by Motolifestyle - The Suzuki GS500 — an entry-level midsize street bike — is hardly thought of as racy or sexy. However, these bikes can be had for next to nothing these days. Sjoerd Veenstra of Motolifestyle decided […]
Suzuki TL1000R Cafe Fighter by Magnum Opus - Ah, the Suzuki TL1000R — introduced in 1998 to be Japan’s mighty V-twin Superbike, designed to rival the dominant Ducatis on the track and in the showroom. The TL1000R would fall short in World Superbike, […]
Suzuki T500 Cafe Racer by Motorcycle Mania Chicago - We love the smell of two-strokes in the morning–or any time, really–especially if they are 70s street screamers. Enter the Suzuki T500, one of the lesser-known oil-smokers of era. Marketed as the Cobra or Titan, […]
Suzuki GS550 Cafe Racer: “GS673” - 1976 was the year Suzuki introduced their first line of four-stroke street machines, the venerable GS series. The Suzuki GS550, which offered 49 horsepower from its air-cooled inline four, was a hard-hitting middleweight, beating both […]
Suzuki GS500 Cafe Racer by So-Low Choppers - Lately, we’ve been featuring some incredible bikes by young builders, so we were thrilled to receive a message from Jay Ransome, son of Clive Ransome, who owns So Low Choppers of the UK. Though he’s […]
Topper’s Suzuki GSX-R1100 Cafe Racer - Our man from Cheltenham, Dave Solomon of Butchered Classics, is back with another build. This time, it’s a 1989 Suzuki GSX-R1100 built for his “vertically-challenged” mate, Topper. As you may know, the 1989 “K model” […]
Suzuki GS450 Cafe Racer by Wrench Kings - Bram Boot and the crew at Wrench Kings, based in The Netherlands, spent a number of years in corporate management in Dubai. They had an enormous sandbox to play in, complete with big cars, road […]
Suzuki GS850 Cafe Racer by Mr. Swallow Customs - We’ve been enjoying profiling some of the Suzuki GS Series customs coming out of various shops, starting with the GS550 tracker we recently featured. Today, we have a stunning GS850 cafe racer by Sebastien Joigne […]
Budget-Built Honda CB750 Custom…Bandit-Powered! - We’re thrilled to present you guys with another build from Dave Solomon, the spirited Englishman behind the Bandit-powered Z1000 we recently featured. Today, Dave brings us the story of another classic fitted with a 1200cc, […]
Suzuki GT550 Cafe Racer, “The Warlock” - We’re thrilled to present The Warlock, a 1972 Suzuki GT550 built by Rich Page of Widow Maker Cycles in Draper, Utah. We’ve always been suckers for 70s two-stroke triples, blue-smoking screamers such as the one […]
