The Stonebridge Motor Company and the Ace Cafe teamed up to build Little Miss Dynamite, the S&S powered cafe racer which was unveiled at the Ace in front of invited guests on June 9th and is is now competing in the S&S 50th anniversary celebration in La Crosse, Wisconsin and will also be at Champions Park, Sturgis, South Dakota for the AMD World Championship in August.
Little Miss Dynamite, built by by Nick Gale and his team at Stonebridge, is based on a Norton featherbed style frame with power from a 1650cc S&S V-twin and it has just the right cafe look. Specs are as follows:
Frame: StoMoCo Featherbed ‘Super’ Wideline
Engine: S&S 100ci SB Sportster 1650cc
Gearbox: 6 speed Baker XL
Suspension: Ohlins
Wheels: 18″
Rubber: 120 front + 160 rear
Dyno Report (Urbane Racing):
105lbs/sq ft + 135bhp @ rear wheel @ 75% throttle.140mph @ 5000rpm in 5th gear!
Mark Wilsmore, Managing Director of the Ace Cafe London says on her return from the USA, “Little Miss Dynamite” will debut at the cafe on Saturday 13th September with an opportunity to meet the builders, Nick Gale and his team, at 4pm on occasion of the 15th annual Ace Cafe Reunion weekend. As part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Ace over this weekend, the bike will also be present on Madeira Drive, Sunday 14th September, on the Brighton Burn Up.
Seeing the big V-twins in a sporty frame is great, as we’ve said many times, more builders should take this idea and run with it. Nice work!
More photos below:
Link: Stonebridge Motor Company
Link: Video here
Link: S&S 50th celebration
Related: Ace Cafe coming to Sturgis
Nathan says
Ohhh its beautiful
chris says
sweet whip
motoxyogi says
How are they going to manage the vibes. Rubbermounting the engine? Or is it going to have a counterbalancer?
mark says
Gorgeous, except for two things: that tach sticking way up above everything else looks very out of place, and those million-spoke wheels are not my cup of tea. Would have looked much better with normally-laced wheels, or five-spoke cast wheels.
Love the exhaust.
I haven’t seen a V-Twin cafe racer this good since Mike Cook’s Super Manx.
Phoebe says
Hmm…not sure about the million-spoked wheels, but otherwise it’s a nice modernized take on a Cafe racer.
Chris says
I was too distracted by that ridiculous air intake to notice the wheels the first time around, but I agree that the wheels are sort of odd. Maybe they’d look less odd if the spokes were chrome instead of black. Regardless, the “four exhaust pipe” look is not exactly a good look for this bike, and that, IMO, needs to be fixed before anything else.
Other than those two details, though, I really like it overall.
hoyt says
This appears to be the same motor used by the Wakan. It would be interesting to see the 2 side-by-side and note the difference in wheelbase, rake/trail, dry weight, and then take them to a track
How does S&S feel about all the exposure prior to the 50th? If all the builders did this, then the element of anticipation for the press & event attendees would be sorely diminished.
kneeslider says
hoyt, the 50th celebration starts tomorrow with some events starting today so it’s not really jumping the gun by more than a few hours.
Ed Barrett says
A beautiful rendition of the classic cafe style. Overall the bike is beautiful, however, like most of the other commenters, I think that the wheels should be re-thought; I’m on the side of the cast wheels crowd. And the intake system imitating the exhaust styling looks completely out of place on this machine. It is an interesting design cue but it doesn’t fit the style, it is far too unbalanced. Cool look, wrong bike.
GAMBLER says
love it!
just ditch the muscle car tach, & replace with something vintage frenched into the headlight…
do you need a tach on a S&S twin anyway
todd says
looks nice except for the previously mentioned nods to the current “bling” styling themes.
A bit overkill on the motor I’d say. Take away half the capacity and you might have a nice managable, yet still powerful, light bike.
-todd
Geofrey says
Cool bike but engine is too big, heavy looking, tach needs to go, wheels need to go, exhaust needs to go, not in the true spirit of original cafe but an interesting rendition of modern Harley since choppers are out of style this may be the new craze.
I wish they had used a smaller buell engine, would have then been a cafe bike.
johnny says
wicked! love the look(apart from that silly air intake)
LOVE the stats..140 MPH @ 5000 rpm!!
Jeff says
Todd
Just bolt a hopped up Buell Blast motor in there and you’ve got it 🙂 That would be neat for the single jug folks .
Tim says
How about some gold ano (or proper Magnesium) Lester mag wheels?
but I really like it. I also love the look of spoked wheels, so its a win either way.
Joe says
I like the intakes and the exhaust setup. Has an almost haphazard look in a very planned sort of way. Very steampunk to me (the rest of the bike too). Dont really care one way or the other about the wheels, but they might look cool with a polished bronze look, similar to the fork tubes or brake fluid cans? behind the rear shocks. Seems like a rather large rear sprocket too, its a wonder it can go so fast in such a low gearing.
Doug says
“the 50th celebration starts tomorrow with some events starting today so it’s not really jumping the gun by more than a few hours.”
The bike was unveiled in the UK on Monday…an eternity with the speed of the web.
S&S may not have any issues at all with Stonebridge’s premature unveiling, but it would also be nice to have no cats outta the bag when there is a Golden anniversary being celebrated.
OMMAG says
Form that follows function … my favorite school of design philosophy! I also like the use of hardware bits as detail highlights.
The question is how most potential customers feel about it !
WRXer says
Very mad max. Somebody’s cup of tea, but not mine.
Wolter says
I wish i had one – just the way it is. espeacialy the wheels, the intakes, the speedo and the exhausts.
Nicolas says
Great looking bike …
For real life people there is a french motorcycle manufacturer called VOXAN who has been producing in serie for years the models called Cafe Racer and more recently the Black Magic who look kind alike this miss dynamite … but affordable
See the link : http://www.voxan.com/voxan/gamme.asp
todd says
Nicolas, the Voxan is illegal to import into the USA.
To Jeff’s comment about the Blast motor, I don’t know if that’s a joke… It would be more fitting to have a half-1125R (but air cooled) motor in there. That would be sweet. Or I’d settle for a Yamaha 660 single if I could get one from a MZ – Yamaha doesn’t import the 660 single either.
-todd
Nicolas says
Voxan are illegal to import ?!?
I happened to work for Voxan as consultant a few years ago, and had the opportunity to test ride some of the bikes. Pretty good stuff, torquey 998 cc V-twin, excellent handling, and hand-made quality. Now I know they suffered from distribution and pricing issues, and not sure how healthy this company is today, but their product are definitely out of the box.
protojoe says
Add a polished aluminium three quater fairing, ala paul smart Duc, and this thing would be tight. Hides the high top tac and adds a little stream lining to something that aready has a bit of an art deco flair. It would help at 140 mph too.
Jeff says
No joke Todd 🙂 . That would be a cool thumper .Old school looking to boot
Wreker says
That’s an S&$ 100 cubic inch SPORTSTER motor. Not a big twin. Notice the unit design of the engine, unlike the big twins. The open primary probably probably caught you up.
The guys at luckycharmchoppers.com did a cafe sporty build but with the 1200cc engine plus some extra headwork. Only 300 ish pounds and less chrome.
Joey’s Streetfighter is an awesome little bike.
Nik BEBIC says
It’s a great looking ride, as a design exercise.
But it’s not a cafe racer. The look is too heavy and suggests it’s not going to be that sharp in the cornering department, hope I’m wrong though. More of a GT bike. Should do well Stateside.