Look at the cafe racer here and you think, another nice old Norton or Triton, until you look closer and see an engine with Kawasaki on the side. Look closer still and you find a front fork from a Suzuki GSX-R400, a Suzuki GT750 front brake and a Kawasaki H2 rear hub, plus a big helping of self made pieces that look rather nice.
Phil Klawsuc, over in the U.K., had a 1968 Kawasaki W2 twin carb engine which he thought would go just right with a Norton featherbed frame, but he wanted it to run like a more modern bike while keeping the vintage look. The Kawasaki W1 and W2 were very British looking motorcycles to begin with but this is taking the look to a whole different level. Any cafe racer like this will take a bit of engineering to make the parts come together right but I think he did a superb job.
This is just another one of those motorcycles that will drive the purists crazy, cafe racers are supposed to be British and all that, but if you ask me, I think it’s very cool.
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics has a complete write up in the December 2006 issue, it’s worth a look.
Photo credit: Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Divine says
Nice! I love the old school cafe look.
hoyt says
driving purists crazy is part of the fun, right?
(especially if someone has another bike in the “purist” shape that the purists don’t know about)
nice job
todd says
Very nice
-todd
Steve says
Really nice, I like it very much. I wish there was a ready supply of those Kawasaki mills in the states for projects like that, as an alternative to 650 Yamahas.
Dave says
Here’s one for the purist, ultra low mileage too.
http://www.newstalgiccycles.com
John J. Redmond says
I LOVE IT! I really think the motor looks like the early BSA which is my favorite. I just might build up one of these instead of the Beezer-hell it will always start and run with NO oil leaks, what a concept! Sound wise almost but not the same.
John
Mayakovski says
Sweet!
davidabl says
W-1 & W-2 mills are probably rarer than BSA’s in Britian,certainly they are over
here. I know I’ve only ever seen one and that was when the bike was almost new,almost 40 years ago.
btw the tank emblem is derived from Kawasakis industrial logo of the era.
check out the home page at http://www.badgerepicas.com.au to see the whole emblem.
Geoff says
Sweet! Great mix of technologies. It great to see the evolution of the Cafe Racer especially when it’s done as well as this.