Perusing images from the past couple of tripe to London’s Ace Cafe, we noticed how many riders across the Pond were building cafe racers equipped with handlebars that, well, let’s just say will please the chiropractor community. It’s rather impressive to see custom speedbikes still being built in the tradition of the early Ton-Up spirit; that is, inspired by racing motorbikes and form and purpose. Back in the day, old timers will tell you that a visit to any short circuit for a race meet was enough to have the lads busily altering their machines in the shed, trying through ingenuity and a growing performance parts aftermarket, to replicate the svelte, no-nonsense machines they’d just witnessed on track. For a time during the 1960s, there seemed to be an unofficial competition among cafe racer builders to mount one’s clip-ons the closest to the front wheel spindle as possible. The winner was rewarded with the envy of his riding buddies and, due the relative youth involved, not much in the way of stiff necks or lower back pain. In today’s custom cafe world, extremely low clip-ons are a rare sighting indeed, though it’s – perhaps comforting isn’t the right word- at least inspiring to see the tradition of two-wheeled aerodynamics still alive.
