VOL. 54 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 7, 2017 P79
I
f there's ever a country that can lay
claim to legitimately inventing a seg-
ment, it's Great Britain with the café
racer. And if there's a brand that can
lay claim to more genuine heritage than
anyone to this style of machine, it's that
most British of brands, Triumph.
It all started with The Ton-Up boys.
These grease-ball geezers of the
early 1960s forged the café racing
legend by taking British singles from
Triumph, Norton, AJS and Matchless,
stripping them to nothing and ripping
around London in an effort to "do the
ton"—in other words, 100 mph. Later,
in mid-1960s Britain, the Ton-Up boys
merged into the well-known gang "The
Rockers" and had a long-running war
between the scooter riding "Mods"
group—but that's another story.
What isn't another story is the style
that era of no rules riding produced. In
a motorcycle industry that loves looking
backwards to go forward, a café racer
represents the ultimate in no-holds-
barred teenage abandon. It's a feeling
that as we get older, we wish we could
get back. At least, I do.
Hunting for
Spanish coffee:
The Street Cup will
let you live out your
inner café racer
boy without having
to join your local
Rocker group.
