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The TVS Ronin Café Racer is shaping up as one of the most interesting possible derivatives of TVS Motor’s modern-retro 225cc platform. What began as a series of custom builds has moved closer to production relevance after TVS filed a design patent in India for a dedicated café racer version in 2026. The patent itself d
The café racer began with a simple objective: make an ordinary motorcycle faster. Its roots lie in postwar Britain, where motorcycles provided affordable transportation for young working-class riders who could not easily afford cars. Britain was still recovering economically from the Second World War, and motorcycles o
Listed for sale on Bring a Trailer with no reserve, this 2018 BMW R nineT Racer captures the café-racer formula through a distinctly German interpretation. Drawing heavily from BMW’s 1970s endurance-racing machines, the R nineT Racer combines a streamlined half-fairing and minimalist rear cowl with a powerful boxer twi
Offered for sale on Bring a Trailer with no reserve, this 1993 Ducati 907 I.E. represents a thoughtful reworking of Ducati’s distinctive sport-touring platform into a more focused cafe racer. Completed between 2018 and 2019, the build combines a rebuilt 904cc L-twin, upgraded electronics, bespoke exhaust hardware, revi
Listed for sale on Bring a Trailer with no reserve, this 1982 Yamaha XV920 Virago has been transformed from a factory cruiser into a distinctly styled café racer, combining the model’s air-cooled V-twin character with a comprehensive set of custom chassis and cosmetic upgrades. Proceeds from the sale will benefit Arts
Cafe racers and custom scramblers are built on subtraction. Strip the fairings, ditch the plastic, keep only what earns its weight. A lot of riders who live in that world would rather run an analog chronograph than anything with a glowing screen, and there is a real case for that. A hand-wound watch does not need charg
The Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans remains one of the defining Italian sporting motorcycles of the 1970s, pairing unmistakable café-racer character with the robust engineering of Moto Guzzi’s Tonti-derived chassis. This Series 2 example, generally identified retrospectively as a MkI, is now offered for sale on Collecting Cars
StarknightMT knows exactly what an operator of a Can-Am Commander will need. The Commander is a versatile vehicle that can tackle any terrain and any outdoor job that comes its way. However, there are several upgrades that can be made to this machine to enhance its overall performance while also giving the owner a grea
You know the drill. You have got an hour before dinner, the tank is off, and you finally have a clear run at that carb you have been putting off all week. Except the first twenty minutes vanish before a spanner even touches a bolt, spent hunting for the right size socket, moving a box of old fairing panels off the benc
There’s a particular kind of frustration every rider knows: something feels off, but not dramatically wrong. Maybe the idle has become uneven. Maybe the clutch engagement point has shifted. Maybe a warning light appears just long enough to make you suspicious, then disappears again. In those moments, maintenance can fe
Liz Rubin and the team at Triumph Columbia River in Portland, Oregon, approached their custom Scrambler 1200X with a clear objective: create a motorcycle that reflected the character of the Pacific Northwest while remaining genuinely usable on the roads, gravel tracks, and forest-service routes that define the region’s
The modern retro motorcycle market has evolved far beyond a simple styling trend. What manufacturers once regarded as a niche fascination has developed into one of the most diverse and commercially significant segments in contemporary motorcycling. Today, buyers can choose between machines that deliberately reproduce t
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