Cafe Racer Motorcycles

Powered by a Revolution V-twin engine, the Street 500 and 750 are premium Harley-Davidson even though they’re geared toward the budget-minded, entry-level crowd. Just because the price is low doesn’t mean they skimped on quality. The Street siblings come with a steel teardrop tank and fenders covered in the deep, rich color, and flawless finish that long ago made Harley-Davidson the benchmark for premium paint on a motorcycle. The cherry on top is the chrome tank badge — not a decal, as you might expect in an economy-priced bike, but a three-dimensional tank medallion — as Harley’s pledge to you that you are riding a premium quality machine.

After a race to the upper displacement range and a subsequent search for the bottom usable cubage, Honda revisited its midrange and spruced up its CB650R ahead of the 2019 model year. That’s right sports fans; the Neo Sport Café concept has gone to production under this new moniker, and it rolled into MY19 with a handful of tweaks that brushed up the looks and carve off a little fat. The powerplant also took a beating from the buffhammer to turn out a 5-percent increase in power with changes to improve rideability and safety.

Traffic-carving performance wasn’t the first thing I thought of when hearing the name Harley-Davidson, but the MoCo started changing that perception with the new-in-2017 Street Rod 750. While it is, in fact, based on the Street 750, multiple changes in the setup and equipment turn it into another animal entirely. Shorter steering geometry, a more aggressive rider triangle and a more powerful engine come together in H-D’s decisive push into the sport-standard market.

The coronavirus shutdown may be in effect, but the electric-vehicle sector chives on with continued development and product releases. I have a whole handful of products to tell you about that range from scooter-like bikes to full-on, Energica-style superbikes with an extra dollop of “super.”

Italian marque MV Agusta throws its hat into the retro-tastic ring in 2020 with its Neo-Classic Racer model, the Superveloce 800. Clearly a modern machine, the factory managed to incorporate the flavor of the old café racers to deliver an interesting blend indeed. A high-compression triple delivers 148 horsepower with an electronics suite that gives the machine multiple personalities to match your own attitude and skillset. Make no mistake, this is a racebike through and through, but one built for the road rather than the racetrack, just like the original café racer bikes.

Triumph Motorcycles took last year’s Thruxton R and levied a bevy of improvements to create the new-for-2020 Thruxton RS. The tuneup is far from just being a facelift. Power increased almost 8 horsepower on the torque-rich powerplant, the bike dropped about 13 pounds from its curb weight, and grunt comes on earlier for a broader, more useful powerband. Triumph finished it off with top-shelf safety electronics, contemporary style, and a two-tone paint package over a blackout frame and powerplant.

Suzuki expanded its SV650 roadster lineup for the 2019 model year with a café-tastic SV650X ABS. The “X” adds some subtle changes to the bodywork, plus a not-so-subtle bullet fairing to make that crucial historical connection to the target era sometime back in the seventies. The suspension system was updated for the whole SV650 family across the board, and it brings a spring-preload feature to the front end that is difficult to match at this price point and genre. Power comes from the same 645 cc twin that pushes the rest of the family with 75 ponies ready to go and a handful of electronic fandangelries to help manage them.

Timeless designs that take you back to the pre-’60s era heightened the feeling of riding free-spirited machines and the sense of freedom. This is what a modern-day classic motorcycle offers without that knuckle bending fixes and ghastly scenes of oil dripping everywhere. Here are our top five standards/classic motorcycles coming in 2020 that takes us back to the time from the ’60s.

Recalling the past glories, these neo-classic motorcycles have still managed to retain the charm and posterity of minimalistic elegance along with providing modern day mechanicals and the bits. They run on efficient high output engines that are both reliable and powerful and are equipped with state of the art suspension and brake setups that will bring the bike to a halt not far from their point of application, unlike the yesteryears.

Moto Guzzi celebrates a decade of V7 Racer bikes with the 2020 V7 III Racer 10th Anniversary. The factory builds on the third and current generation V7 Racer with some café-tastic bodywork that sets it apart from the base model. There are Easter Eggs a’plenty from models past scattered about this celebratory machine to turn it into something of a rolling tribute piece. As with the rest of the V7 III line, power comes from the signature, transverse-mount V-twin with over 50 ponies on tap and a new, adjustable, house-brand traction control feature to help you keep it under control. Under the hood, wireless connectivity to web-based services brings an infotainment element to the table along with bonafide modern credentials.

The beginning of this century saw the world views changing gradually towards climate change and the need to preserve the environment. This, along with stringent policies, has forced the manufacturers to develop motorcycles that can run cleaner fuel and extract the maximum economy from it, sometimes even at the cost of performance.

Bad news for people who seek the element of thrill, but a pretty good one for someone living in urban jungles where folks prefer commuting on a motorcycle rather thank a car for its practicality and frugal fuel-efficiency. Then there are us few who love the idea of putting serious miles on two-wheels and living the adventure.

We here have compiled a list to give you the best available tools for such situations and save some money on gas while at it.

The Bolt from Yamaha’s Star cruiser line is a cool little bobber-style bike with its high tank, short wheelbase and solo seat. It’s a nice around town bike — lightweight and agile — and naked with real-steel sheet metal, so it just begs you to customize it. What could be better? Enter the Bolt’s siblings, the dressier Bolt R-Spec and the café racer Bolt C-Spec. The Spec duo are every bit as snappy and fun to ride as the Bolt, but with some upgrades, both hardware and cosmetic. Powered by the air-cooled 942 cc V-twin engine, the Specs are in the same size slot as the Bolt: not too small that you’ll outgrow it right away and not so big to be overwhelming for new riders. At just a few bills more than the Bolt, they’re worth a look.

British bike builder Norton Motorcycles teams up with Swiss watchmaker Breitling to turn out the Commando 961-based Breitling Sport Limited Edition for 2019. The bespoke Breitling Sport LE carries a number of special touches from the famed watchmaker to set it apart from the base-model Commando 961, and naturally, the watchmaker produced a companion wrist piece that’s meant to compliment the bike. While this isn’t the first bike-watch pairing in history, far from it, but it may well be the most exclusive.

Classic looks and modern performance come together with a 773 cc parallel-twin to push this homegrown-looking bike, the new Kawasaki W800 Café. Unveiled at 2018 EICMA, the factory pulled out all the stops to give it a custom appeal.

The Norton Commando 961 lineup, in general, brings a healthy dose of classic café racer DNA to the table — some models more than others — and the California adds some old-school custom flavor to the mix. The British influence is unmistakable throughout, and even the engine exudes an Englishness that just cannot be faked. Norton has its own deep roots to draw upon for design points, and the “Cali” delivers authentic historical looks with modern performance.

Moto Guzzi marks the 50th anniversary of its V7 model family and its racing roots with the race-tastic, limited-run V7 III “Racer.” This third-generation model brings a distinct cafe’ racer vibe along with modern comfort and performance for what the factory hopes is a bike that is “more pleasure to own and ride.” Did they succeed? Well, the jury is still out on that, but the 52-horsepower engine, fully-adjustable rear shocks and pillion pad hidden under the tail fairing certainly bode well for the Racer. ’Guzzi boosted the power, and it also updated the visuals and slimmed the bodywork down for more appeal. Traction control provides some contact-patch protection, but that seems to be the fanciest gadget the Racer has to offer.

Triumph has been busy as of late, expending vast energies and resources reinvigorating the venerable Bonneville range. The Thruxton family got some lovin’ in 2016 and the new incarnation certainly had big shoes to fill considering the fame and glory associated with the Thruxton name from back in the ’60s and ’70s, a fact not lost on the designers. A brand-new engine drives the range, and a whole host of modern, race-tastic features brings the old-school cafe’ racer look to the table with contemporary performance and features that make it less like just a tribute piece, and more of a modern machine with real-world relevance.

Tempus Electric Bikes burst onto the green scene back in ’17 with its freshman entry, the CR-T1, and the Ontario-based builder reprises its effort with the Titan family. The new model comes with much of the same café-tastic look that made the first a hit, but with more in the way of performance at the top end. Like the original, it rocks a pedal-assist drive system offered in a 500 Watt hub-type motor on the “C” model or 1,000W on the “R” variant. Top speeds and range vary according to motor size/model to give the platform an outsized footprint in an ever-expanding market.