When I first got my bike, I made the mistake of googling CB 750. Within minutes I ended up on Carpy's website. Bam! I was hooked. But, in my opinion, that is the wrong place to start if you're going to modify a bike. But I had no idea at the time.
Now, 3 or 4 years later, I have a stock 750 that I want to keep stock, and actually can see more value in it as simply a more useful bike. My cafe racer sits in my house in parts. I'm looking forward to finishing it, but it's one of those things where you think, "Boy, if only I could do it all over again...."
I was sucked in by the cafe racer idea. But now I browse craigslist and occasionally see a "cafe racer" for sale. They are always somebody's hacked up piece of crap. Sometimes they even mention the modifications they made, including how they threw away the stock airbox because "those things were pieces of crap." Needless to say, I would never buy a bike that someone hacked on. I'd rather buy a frozen-motor, sat in a barn for 20 years bike than have to deal with someone else's stripped out philips screws and all around butch-hackery.
That's the problem with the cafe craze and these type of shows. It's never the true artisans that get these shows, but instead it's always the drama inducing butch-hackers with egos that don't quite match their skill set. And then regular guys like me who are still novices see this, and see that a motorcycle, unlike a car, is largely accessible as far as being able to put your hands on all the little parts, and these shows give the regular guy like me a false sense of what's cool and a false sense of one's own capabilities. In the end, we end up with bikes being sold on craigslist that are not as nice as they were before Mr. butch-hacker decided to customize it.
[Edit:] Maybe I was a bit harsh on these particular folks - the bikes pictured above do look nice. Maybe they could exercise better judgement though. I mean, wouldn't it be that much more impressive if they started with a crappy bike....
