Topic: More "Cafe Racer" griping.

[Toxic]

Thanks, I didn't know it was on YouTube, we don't get it here in my neck of the woods.

I'll have to watch it and see for myself.

[dave500]

the money,and too much money spoils the whole original concept of the cafe racer,,in the day you had no money,made bars,knew a mate who could weld,who knew a mate who worked at a shop to true wheels and did porting at home,removed stuff to shed weight etc,and you hoped to end up with a better,faster than stock bike so on the public street you could out run similar stock bikes,,,now its a fashion,a while ago getting fuel a bloke comes up and says nice bike,,really retro,,i said its not retro its the real deal,he was ok we talked for a minute.

[tortelvis]

...better yet, get rid of the whole damn television...one less excuse to not go riding...

I got rid of my TV hookup six years ago! Now I have time for more important things...what am I saying? Taking a dump is more important than TV.

[Duke McDukiedook]

I personally prefer to leave my dumps, not take them with me.

[HonderCB]

I think its kinda nice to see a bike show that isnt just a bunch of harley-lovin-muscled-up-a*holes taking a generic frame, putting a generic S&S motor in it, painting it cool, and making it as un-rideable as possible and calling it a bike.  No, not everything about the show is perfect.  How they jump around so much is kinda annoying, and the budgets for example on some of the bikes (the ducati, or the 69 750), but for the most part its guys who enjoy the same thing we all do, and thats cool old bikes.  For the most part i like the show because i like seeing some recognition for cool old bikes, but like all of you i did want to kill that guy for chopping up that sandcast.  That made me a little sick... ok it made me alot sick.  And then cut up the tank after someone told him what it was...GO BUY ANOTHER TANK AND SELL THAT ONE TO SOMEONE WHO WILL USE IT!

[robdrobd]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that whole wrinkle tank chop up. Eeewwwww!

[Raul CB750K1]

This is what I said back in 2006...

I'm happy for Carpy, but I bet Cafes are the next step after choppers. Wanna bet in one year you will have Carpy on a major TV program, just like Jesse James? Then, expect old Honda's price to skyrocket.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=10482.msg98567#msg98567

I was wrong about Carpy getting into TV, but let the Cafe Racer ball grow a little bigger and we will have him on the air.

[Don R]

All I can say is every 69 they hack up makes mine worth more. Can I have all the parts they took off? I never saw wrinkles but they probably were there.  The bike did belong to that guy and he can do what he wants. But,,,, I would have cut up a K3 or so and kept the 69 nice.  that's just me.
 

[socalenduro]

can someone fill me in on why carpy seems to be so hated here?

[cb550inct]

He is not really hated, I think They hate Benji more, Most people here don't like to see a perfectly good sohc Honda ripped apart by some so called builder. Carpy is OK in my book,  he builds from complete pieces of junk, and supplies decent parts. But the idea of a Cafe is viewed as trendy here, (carpy gets thrown in with that group). I like his work and he does not seem to be like OCC, or Jesse James, as a matter of fact I've seen every episode of Cafe Racer and he has not appeared.

I think the Earlier quote was not a bash on Carpy, but a statement that cafe racers would become trendy, like Harleys. I personally don't care. I like motorcycles and love talking motorcycles with other bike owners. I check out his web sight, and i bought a couple of parts from him.

But this show has a lot ,of people that don't know #$%* about these bikes, tearing them apart and building rolling artwork.

[MCRider]

can someone fill me in on why carpy seems to be so hated here?

I wouldn't say hated. he's a victim of his own success. he does have an ego that rubs some people the wrong way. I bot a hub from him and asked him to polish it for me, I'd pay his price. he does really nice polishing. When I got it back it still had the scars on it from the spokes from when it was laced. I asked him what gives. he is SO emphatic about when you get his stuff its all ready to go, etc. But to me that was unacceptable. he said send it back he would refund the money, never had a complaint in 30 years.

If the hubs on his bikes look like the one he sold me, then that tells the tale. Looks great in a picture. Up close, you see the real shortcuts. I don't know if they do or not. And the average person might just say so what? So I'll reserve that judgement.

Well that wasn't my point, and if he needed more money to polish out the scars that would be fine. But our relationship was pretty much over at that point. I asked him to remove the bearings also as at that time I didn't know how. I have since learned. He installed low end bearings and couldn't tell me if they were double sided sealed or single sided. I said I didn't ask him for that, just take out the old ones. he said he was doing me a favor and i was ungrateful.

I wanted double sealed bearings and i wanted to cryo treat them first. So I knocked them out and put mine in. And i sanded off the scars and learned how to polish on my own.

having said all that, and i know many here have had such run ins, I've still bot a lot of misc parts from him for my project and wish him well. He's riding a big wave and trying not to fall off.

[Duke McDukiedook]

I have been Ok with his builds and the fact that he takes bombed out bikes and builds them up to something decent.
Like the other guys have said I have heard from more than a few people that have some legit problems with his products get basically harrased and treated poorly by him. I don't care for that type of attitude, if people have problems with your wares, help them out- don't flog them needlessly.

[Terry in Australia]

Carpy deserves to be recognised as the father of the current Cafe Racer fad. He started it, so he deserves the accolades and the rotten eggs, in equal proportions. And yes, he has built Cafe's out of "snotters" as he refers to them, but he's also built plenty of Cafe bikes out of perfectly good, clean bikes that he was buying at garage sales for beer money. I bought some of his "cast off items" in the early days of EBay, and they were very clean, indeed.

The whole "Cafe" thing appeals primarily to young guys who don't have any respect for the bikes they chop up, they weren't around in the 1970's when these bikes first came out, and didn't witness the incredible impact that they had on the world of motorcycling. To them, they're just old bikes that are cheap to buy, and with the addition of a crappy 16 inch EBay back wheel, a pair of "Clubman" handlebars and some matt black paint, can "customise" them to reflect their personalities.

Personally, I'd rather see these old bikes sit out the current Cafe fad in a dark, dusty barn, so that in years to come, someone will come along and give them the love and respect that they deserve. Cheers, Terry.

[TerryK]

The few bikes these guys are cutting up are MINUTE compared to what is going on on eBay. That place is responsible for more perfectly restorable and original condition vintage and classic bikes being torn apart and sold off that all the builders in the world could ever manage to molest. It's sad to think of just how many bikes of every description are parted out for profit. It's only a matter of time before it will be rare to find $500 restorable project bikes. And think about all the parts that are not sold. The guys that strip these bikes will only hold on to unsold parts for so long, then off to the scrap they go.

Think about it.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, agreed Terry, but as a restorer, EBay is an excellent source of good used parts at very reasonable prices. Last week I bought a "single cut" front fender, oil tank, OEM paint gas tank and a few other parts for my K0 resto.

The seller would have been happy to sell me the engine and frame too, but he lives in a tiny town in the American mid west and his only way of moving stuff is via his USPS office, and the frame and engine were just too large to post. He won't trash these parts, but if you want them, it's "pick up only".

Over here in Oz it's impossible to find good used parts for our projects, so the other side of the coin is that for every bike that is parted out, many other bikes are put back on the road. "Donor bikes" are a very important part of the restorers world, and a valuable asset. Cheers, Terry.     

[Tews19]

Oh man what does young mean? I am 30, got into these bikes because I liked the "cafe" appeal.... Once I joined this site, posted pics of my first 550k and was taught about the appreciation you all have for these bikes, I changed my plan to cut it up.. These bikes are something special... I stated this in another thread, but it's a great feeling having your bike at a bike night and all these old timers come up to me and share their stories of their 550s... To each their own with this show... Me, personally I like the stories they share of the history.. The builds,,, ehhh... I kind of wish they had the motorcycle show where they gave normal people a week to build a bike from scrap, got it running and they keep it... I forgot the name of that show but it was cool.

[Terry in Australia]

Oh man what does young mean? I am 30, got into these bikes because I liked the "cafe" appeal.... Once I joined this site, posted pics of my first 550k and was taught about the appreciation you all have for these bikes, I changed my plan to cut it up.. These bikes are something special... I stated this in another thread, but it's a great feeling having your bike at a bike night and all these old timers come up to me and share their stories of their 550s... To each their own with this show... Me, personally I like the stories they share of the history.. The builds,,, ehhh... I kind of wish they had the motorcycle show where they gave normal people a week to build a bike from scrap, got it running and they keep it... I forgot the name of that show but it was cool.

Ha ha, well in my opinion anybody younger than me is a "young guy" mate, but realistically, to have "been there" when the CB750 was a whole new phenomenom (compared to the greasy unreliable British, European and American bikes of the era) you'd have to be at least 50. I was only 9 or 10 when I saw my first CB750 (I was teaching myself to ride my big sister's Honda C50 back then) and I bought my first shiny new CB750 in 1978, a couple of weeks after my 18th birthday. 

I'm glad that you've absorbed the passion for SOHC4's, if you spend enough time on this site it's very difficult not to be affected by the passion that permeates these threads, and that's a good thing, I believe. Enjoy your bike mate, and get used to having conversations with old blokes like me who want to stand and admire your bike, these bikes are time machines, in that they transport old guys like me back to their misspent youth, when life was a bit simpler, and fun was spelt with a capital "H". Cheers, Terry.

[phil71]

some translations:
Cafe Racer : Form without function
Chopper : "I'm rich, #$%*!"
Bobber : couldn't figure out the wiring, ditched the lights and instruments.
Sport bike : misguided missle
Street fighter : "crashed my sportbike. Convinced myself I liked it better without fairings when i found out how much new plastics cost"

[vames]

I like stock or stock-ish and I don't think people should cut up pristine sentiments, but to each his own. But what really bugs the crap out of me are people who plaster the word "Cafe" in all kinds of gothic fonts and checker stripes all over their bikes. I think Carpy's bikes are absolutely beautiful except for the use of the word Cafe.

Imagine if old Mopar restorers put the word "Muscle" in giant font across the side of their car, or if someone with a really nice house painted the word "Luxury" on the side or if a guy with pretty girlfriend tatooed the word "hot" on her forehead. Pretty lame, so why someone with a nice custom bike think it's ok to paint "Cafe" on the side is beyond me.

[vames]

And Phil, you forgot

Rat-Rod: ugly and poor-running death trap, but it's cool 'cause I named it a "Rat Rod"

[bikerbart]

is this a rat rod because its flat black?It is flat black because The tank is a work in progress and I cant afford a 'real' paint job.I know you purists probably hate it,but I love it and I dont label it.Also,whenever I need a new part,I try and upgrade when I can.

[vames]

Looks good. Just don't paint "Rat Rod" on the side and you're golden.

[bikerbart]

I was going to in bold gothic letters filled in with checkered pattern,I changed my mind.(kidding)

[seanbarney41]

I like stock or stock-ish and I don't think people should cut up pristine sentiments, but to each his own. But what really bugs the crap out of me are people who plaster the word "Cafe" in all kinds of gothic fonts and checker stripes all over their bikes. I think Carpy's bikes are absolutely beautiful except for the use of the word Cafe.

Imagine if old Mopar restorers put the word "Muscle" in giant font across the side of their car, or if someone with a really nice house painted the word "Luxury" on the side or if a guy with pretty girlfriend tatooed the word "hot" on her forehead. Pretty lame, so why someone with a nice custom bike think it's ok to paint "Cafe" on the side is beyond me.

...you took the words right out of my mouth...

[Terry in Australia]

..you took the words right out of my mouth...

"It must have been while you were kissing me.................." With apologies to Meatloaf.