In my opinion, when doing the paint scheme, I think the more subtle, the better- I mean, the bike will have guts built into it, and that is what is there to kick butt, not some big gawdy "C A F E" letters painted all over it.
I mean no disrespect for those who have the word CAFE plastered all over their bike, but to a lot of other riders it must look like we're advertising we are riding to Bob's Big Boy to chow down!! For people "in the know" who know about cafe bikes, we already know a cafe bike is a cafe bike, so the word "CAFE" painted on is just too much in my opinion.
I think a solid color, with perhaps an offset strip lengthwise on the top (like an old Boss Mustang or Camaro, etc.) would be perfect.. Triumph Thruxton 900 captured this look with their checkerboard stripe down the middle of the gas tank, although I personally would prefer a solid stripe. When I rebuilt my 750s, I always painted them solid black, and I got a LOT of compliments on them. Of course, black is hard to get perfect bacause it shows any imperfection, but that's another story.
Whoops! Now to address the actual thread question:
I think it might be cool to see some slightly different tech than we are used to seeing on Cafe bikes: How about belt drive instead of drive chain? Also, a buddy of mine used to have an '84 GPZ 550, with the computer deal on the tank.. I always thought that was cool- maybe some high tech wizardry would be nice.. Perhaps keep the stock RPM gauge, but in the shell of the speedo, build in a multi-function gauge that will normally show Speedo in big LCD digits, but can also show oil pressure, temp, battery charge, clock, etc. If you add a fuel sending unit, it could show you fuel level and milage per gallon too..
Jason
