just to throw my two penny slugs into the pot here...I think brit bikes left the true diehard cafe scene about 10 years ago. They are just too damn expensive stateside. For what you pay for a trumpet or norton in new york city could buy you a pretty decent used car, and the insurance is the same as well.
The diehard cafe spirit these days is kindred with the street fighter spirit and is more about low budget street legal no nonsence bikes, not profiling as the owners of triumphs or nortons or bsa's would have you believe with their pretty polished aluminum tanks and copper lines. I think where street fighters and cafe racers diverge is the street cafe racer is about ride quality and replicating the feel of an old race bike on the street, while streetfighters are about street racing and stunting.
That is not to say that a brit bike can't still be part of the die hard cafe spirit, I'm sure there are some. It is just that the majority the brit bike hobby has become the resto trailer queen crowd, and majority of the "brit bike cafe racers" are museum pieces than motorcycles. I think meccatwin kinda bucks that, as does triumph new thruxton and the new norton, but the price of aluminum racer tanks and featherbed frames pretty much killed the old stuff from being truely functional. Plus you can't finance an old brit bike as easy as you can the thruxton or the norton.
That being said...welcome to the board foun. Meccatwin makes some nice stuff, they are also the only company that thought the cafe racer harley was a good enough idea to recreate it using a brand new HD. Their trumpets are outta sight.
Oh and SVR is amazing but I might be biased because I live with a texan.
oh and ho could anybody call a 500cc single slow? sure compared to an r1 it isn't exactly a road burner but think about it for a second...it's a 500cc single, it has to be faster than an indian enfield and all those 250 singles littering europe. No offense but I am convinced that europeans don;t see the value of a single like americans because most of the flat track racing occurs here.
Edited by - geeto67 on Nov 15 2005 2:02:58 PM
