Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128318
(Left) The white-face d gauges o n th e in strument cluster are neatly appointe d a nd easy to read and a s h ini n g e xample of th e cle an, u nclu ttered look o f th e Thruxton. (Be lo w) The s ing le 3 2 0 m m fro nt disc lac k s in itial bite but does a decent job of hauling the Thruxton down from s peed . Do u ble binders, s uch a s t hose fo u n d on the Thunderbird Sport, m ight have been a better choic e. Orig in!; of the I:afe Ral:er The term "Cafe Racer" is evocative to many of a time gone by,descriptive of both a culture and of the bikes that went with it. Cafe racing was born of a time when young men on pared -to -the-bone motorcycles would race - literally- from truck stop to cafe around the arterial routes of London, chancing themselves and their raucous machines against all comers. But the underlying story of these seem ingly daredevil bikers is much deeper, for it's abo ut the postwar discovery of the "teenager," the explosion of rock 'n' roll music among this new secto r of the previously we ll-discipli ned British public, and, above all, the need to be free from the stifling confines of society in the gray, post-World War IIera , when Britain was rebuilding itself, both lite rally and figuratively, after a terri ble conflictwhich had seen much of the bigger towns laid waste by enemy bom bing. And motorcycles, of course, represented freedom back in the '50s and '60s, eve n more so than nowadays, since the average working man simply couldn't afford to own a car. Motorcycling for many quickly became a means to an end , as we llas an enjoyable obsession. But, just as to day, the desire to be special, to stand out and be that little bit quicker than the next rider, was overwhe lming. Thus, the Cafe Racer styie of moto rcycle was bom out of two distinct worlds . Moto rcycle racing was eve n more important 40 or 50 years ago than it is today, because manufacturers used short circuit and public roads racing to prove not only the pe rformance of their machines to pote ntial customers, but also their reliabilityand durability under extreme racing conditions, major sellingpoints when bikes we ren't always that dependable. The use of fairings wasn't widespread, so the essence of most of these stripped-dow n racers, with their raked-back, clip-on handlebars, hunching the rider low and out of the air flow, rear-se t footpegs to aid control and ground clearance, a fat aluminum ta nk and rorty upswept exhaust pipes, fired the imagination of motorcyclists. And just like bike rs today, moto rcyclists of yesterday wanted to emu late the ir he roes, and their machines. So they did - fitting c1ip-ons, rear sets, and upswept megaphone exhausts, and they tuned engines with hot cams and bigge r-bore carbs. Unlike today, the re we re no tra ck days to use th is extra performance at; to test their tuning and riding skills, and the bikes themselves, there was only the open road, which is where the cult of pe rformance met the desire to rebel. With 1V in its infancy and pop music all but banned from the stuffy BBC transmissions, the onlyplace tee nagers and young adults already drawn to two whee ls could liste n to rock 'n' roll music was on crackly Radio Luxembou rg airwaves at night via new-fangled transist or radios, or on the jukeboxes found blaring at trans port cafes - places primarily focused on serving cheap, honest food to truck and van drivers on the ir journey s. So racing from cafe to cafe, hanging out with mates, drinking tea , bike maintenance and tuning, forming clubs, listening to records and bands and talkingabout w hat you'd do ne or were going to do - became a lifestyle, a way of living and a way of bucking the press ure to conform . Motorcycles were no longe r merely cheap transport; they were a ticket to an ide ntity, and stat us. The ton-up boys had been born , and the ir desire for speed - to do the ton , 100 mph - and to race each other perilously on public roads was all-encompassing. Each group of riders had their own little street circuits for a "burn-up," and integra l to the r emem ber why fitting a stee ring dam per was t he hot tip back in t he old days. Thruxto n owners may w ish to con side r doi ng so, too - e ither th at , o r pe rhap s Triumph may care to th ink again o n its base settings. But otherwise t he Thruxton has very goo d road manne rs a nd is a sat isfying and e njoyable real-wo rld moto rcycle, whic h I'd say fUlly achieves its stated purp ose of allowi ng Triumph customers to appreciate the clean, unclut te red simplicity of a period cafe racer, albeit now re-e ngineere d in a modern context. Rakish yet pract ical, w it h quite e noug h performance to satisfy but not so much you mus t worry about preventi ng highsides or hooking up the rear wheel, the Thruxton 900 is an everyday w in dow on a yesteryear wo rld. Ducati w ill have to work hard to make its forthcoming Sport C lassics at least as satisfying to ride and e njoy as t he Th ruxton - by wh ich time, Triumph w ill likely have produced another chapter on the ongoing story that is the Bo nneville revival. eN eve ning's fun were regular rides. And there was always an audience - male and fema le - looking on in judgment, admiration or desire, depen ding on gender and inte nt. The late '50s and ea rly '60s proved the heyday of the cafe racer - t he "golden years," as many who were there refer to that time of their lives. But there was a cost. The accident rate among the ton -up boys was high, and motorcy cling gained a bad reputation - both on celluloid and in reality in America, and from clashes between the scooter- riding "Mods" and biker "Rockers" in tow ns along the UK's South Coast. The UK tabloid press waged a war on the ton -up crowd, and the police cracke d dow n with enforced spee d limits - so people slowly changed, as they do and must . Today's biker is far removed from the young rebels of yesterday, and cafe racing as a culture and lifestyle no longer exists. But the Cafe Racer motorcycle , so steeped in the raw esse nce of biking, has been reborn and is enjoying a new lease o n life, because it serves up an expe rience that is real, undiluted and direct. Which, after all, is what motorcycl ing is mostly all about. www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • APRIL 7,2004 27