Call it the cafe racer comeback.
For road racers and high performance street riders, a pair of naked custom street racers were among the biggest attractions on display Friday at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show presented by Toyota in Long Beach, California.
Former motorcycle road racer and custom bike builder Jesse Rooke was on hand to show off his latest creation, a KTM 950 Supermoto-based cafe-racer influenced design.
The bike sports a pair of 50mm Marzocchi inverted forks on the front and a set of custom FMF exhaust pipes. Dunlop radials mount to the five-spoke Roland Sands Design wheels front and rear. Radial-mounted Brembo brakes providing stopping power at the front end, while an intricate tubular single-sided swingarm holds the rear in place.
“Most of what you see is bolt-on,” Rooke says. “We wanted to add to what KTM did with the bike.”
Ducati took a similar approach, hiring former road racer and custom builder Roland Sands to trick out its Hypermotard. Unveiled at a night club in Long Beach, the night prior to being placed on display at the motorcycle show, the Sands bike features custom Roland Sands Design wheels, open exhausts, and customized bodywork.
The Sands custom transforms the appearance of the original Ducati from its enduro-adventure bike roots to something that echoes the style of a flat-track racer, a design theme that Sands explored with his Team KR MotoGP-engined custom.
The evening was memorable also for the Ducati Desmosedici GP7, missing engine internals and gearbox but otherwise a full MotoGP-ready chassis, on display atop the bar.
Back at the motorcycle show, Sands had another custom on display this one a 2007 Honda CBR1000RR that will be awarded in a drawing at the end of its 13-show tour. The money raised from ticket drawing sales will benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. The foundation’s Ride for Kids program has raised more than $37 million since 1984.
The “ConqueRR” features Roland Sands Design gold anodized rims, “Combat” frame sliders, triple clamps, reservoir covers and mirror kit, as well as a custom paint job by Chris Wood at Airtrix. The bike features Performance Machine radial mount brake calipers, Erion Racing headwork, cam and custom exhausts, HotBodies Racing undertail and windscreen and Spiegler brake lines.
Elsewhere, two of the more stunning customs in appearance as well as function were on display with Triumph. Starting with a pair of Triumph’s 865cc Thruxton twins, the bikes were built to run at Bonneville earlier this year, with motojournalist Alan Cathcart on the “Midnight Pumpkin” and Frenchman Alain Miran aboard the “Hein Gericke Tribe to Speed.”
The show takes place at the Long Beach Convention Center this weekend, and features models from 19 manufacturers as well as customs and aftermarket products. For more information, visit motorcycleshows.com.