Classic Japanese Bikes includes many pages on café racers, bobbers, streetfighters and of course original classics. The cafe racer bikes seem to be the most popular mods of an ever-changing classic bike landscape. We'll look at the Honda CB line and Kawasakis' Zed bikes, as well as the Yamaha XS models and Suzuki's GS bikes, and so much more.
Lately smaller displacement Japanese bikes are becoming popular cafe racer, brat-style and bobber conversions. Simply put, they're cheap to buy. The aftermarket offers lots of OEM and "pattern" parts and with a few basic tools and a bit of imagination, you can have a one of a kind ride for the price of a modern 250 sports machine, but with all of the cache of a totally unique motorbike.
There are some real pros doing amazing things with ratty barn bikes and these can serve as an inspiration to those thinking of ditching their old, neglected rides.
A sizeable industry has grown up around products for this popular industrial-art form. Pretty much any old Japanese four-stroke and two-stroke bike lends itself readily to conversion simply by checking out all the motorcycle web-sites out there selling bolt-on stuff!
Handlebars, seat-pans in fibreglass or aluminum, wild tanks in carbon fibre, fenders galore! Strip your old ride down to the basics and you can simply order up a custom look as easy as you can pull your credit card out of your wallet. And of course there's the huge advantage of being able to actually work on your own bike without the need for an education in computer engineering etc.