Design idea and inspiration

So where should one start, when considering how the bike should look? Well, browsing the Internet is definately the thing to do in my personal oppinion.

Google will get you far. Always remember, that Google is your friend! So by typing for example cafe racer, and selecting "Pictures", you will be able to find a lot of cool cafe racers to be inspired by. The ones I am most inspired by are shown below.







This bike is particularly cool... I love the spoked wheels, and the low look of the bike itself. The exhaust system is also very good looking, with the weldings still visible, to add to that raw look that the bike represents.

Another cool bike to be inspired by, is the Monkee #11 from the Danish custom bike creators, wrenchmonkees. See the link, in my links-box on the right.

I believe that this bike is one of the coolest looking custom cafe racers, that I have ever come across. The fact that it is stripped of all unnecessary components, adds to the cafe racer look and philosophy.

Some other sources of inspiration appear below.

So there You go... Some inspiration for a nice looking cafe racer!

Introduction

Hello everyone that might be reading this blog!

For some time, I have been playing with the idea of building a real old school cafe racer. For those of you, who are not familiar with the concept of the cafe racer, here is some further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_racer

Having that straightened out, I will tell you a bit more about my ideas for this project, which have not even launched yet.

I own a Ducati Pantah 500, and from time to another I have been thinking of the design of the Pantah as boring and "soft". So I always thought that there would be room for improvement. Be your own judge on that matter.

Never the less, I believed that the Pantah frame would be a great platform to build a cafe racer on. I sometimes wondered, if I should sacrifice my Pantah to this project, but that became unnecessary when a friend said that he had a Cagiva Alazzurra for sale. The Cagiva Alazzurra is based on more or less the same frame as a Ducati Pantah. Back in the '80s, Cagiva and Ducati - and Moto Guzzi for that matter - shared a lot of components. However, the Cagivas also used Ducati engines, which means that a 600-700ccm ducati engine up until today should fit right in, with no major changes to the frame.
Yes, that is the beauty of Ducati... Take a 25 y.o. frame, and then fit it with an engine from the 21st century, and you have a bike that is future-proofed for many years, regarding spare parts and so on.