{"id":2181,"date":"2009-04-28T14:51:13","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T14:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=2181"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:12:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T15:12:24","slug":"cafe-racers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"cafe_1\"<\/figure>\n

Ok, I know. A true caf\u00e9 racer shouldn’t have anything as pretentious as a French accent anywhere near it. And alright, I know as well that at least the engine on a true ‘Caff’ racer should have been milled in the greasy environs of the West Midlands. But there was something about this image of a German man on his caffed up Honda CB500, liberated from a US-based enthusiasts’ site <\/a>, that summed up what my idea of a customised street racer out of the classic mould should be.<\/p>\n

The whole idea of a caf\u00e9 racer, of course, comes from the fifties, when greasers lathered up into a frenzy by Gene Vincent<\/a> records from a transport cafe’s jukebox, would race from roundabout to roundabout for kicks. The obvious need to stay clear of alcoholic beverages meaning that a nice cuppa char served in your average transport cafe by the side of a British A-road was much more conducive as a meeting point than a local hostelry.<\/p>\n

The classic caf\u00e9 racer was a bike that had been modded for quickness surf-footedness – fifties and sixties examples aped the homologated road racers of the time. Long, flat stripped or chrome fuel tanks and small, one man seat right at the back of the frame were the most visible leitmotifs, along with dropped, ‘clip-on’ handlebars. The definitive machine in the early years was a hybridised beauty that was the progeny of a Norton frame and Triumph engined machine called “The Triton” (Triumph and Norton, geddit?). <\/p>\n

The caf\u00e9 racer cult has since the days when they were simply stripped-down mods, become a scene in itself, and acolytes of the scene fetishise all that is utilitarian \u2013 even though it is often filtered through the lens of youth cult and the fashion business. Whatever the roots and the rhymes and the reasons, there’s something about the classic set up that brings us out in the need for English iron and unadulterated grease. <\/p>\n

Stay tuned for a fleshed out feature on our favourite sort of motorbike.<\/p>\n

\"cafe_2\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1781,110],"tags":[318,321,320],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-blog","tag-cafe-racers","tag-english-iron","tag-norton"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Influx Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Fordham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@influxmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@influxmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Fordham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Fordham\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/a6c91b312024b67eded5a6ab27166bac\"},\"headline\":\"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\"},\"wordCount\":344,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Cafe racers\",\"English iron\",\"Norton\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Influx Daily\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\",\"name\":\"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\",\"name\":\"Influx Magazine\",\"description\":\"Cars, Bikes, People, Culture\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Influx Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif\",\"width\":300,\"height\":60,\"caption\":\"Influx Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/influxmag\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/a6c91b312024b67eded5a6ab27166bac\",\"name\":\"Michael Fordham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/949366349ea2e847fabfcad335f8699e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/949366349ea2e847fabfcad335f8699e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael Fordham\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx","description":"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx","og_description":"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/","og_site_name":"Influx Magazine","article_published_time":"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Michael Fordham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@influxmag","twitter_site":"@influxmag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael Fordham","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael Fordham","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/a6c91b312024b67eded5a6ab27166bac"},"headline":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer","datePublished":"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/"},"wordCount":344,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg","keywords":["Cafe racers","English iron","Norton"],"articleSection":["Culture","Influx Daily"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/","name":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer - Influx","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg","datePublished":"2009-04-28T14:51:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-22T15:12:24+00:00","description":"Caf\u00e9 Racers have nothing to do with Campari and Soda on the riviera.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/cafe_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/cafe-racers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Cult of the Caf\u00e9 Racer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/","name":"Influx Magazine","description":"Cars, Bikes, People, Culture","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization","name":"Influx Magazine","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif","width":300,"height":60,"caption":"Influx Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/influxmag"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/a6c91b312024b67eded5a6ab27166bac","name":"Michael Fordham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/949366349ea2e847fabfcad335f8699e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/949366349ea2e847fabfcad335f8699e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael Fordham"}}]}},"Feature Image":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35264,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/35264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}