1965 Norton Atlas 750 (Dunstall Dominator)

Wow! The auction closed at $11,601! How cool! See the comment below from a friend of the seller…

Mmmmmmmmmm…

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…

Beautiful. Nothing much else to say. I might have missed some minor detail that’s out of place and someone will point it out. Don’t care. Here’s some specs and more pictures below. There’s more pics and the seller’s writeup if you are interested in learning more or trying to buy the bike. The auction’s at $8,200 with 2 days left and 17 bidders (reserve HAS been met)…

The engine features the work of noted tuner Leo Goff including a balanced lower end, 10.1 pistons, Norris SS cam, and gas flowed head resulting in a very fast and smooth 750 Norton motor.
Alloy Rims
Steering Damper (Manx type)
Multi Rate Valve Springs (S&W)
Special Camshaft (Norris SS hotter than 2S Combat cam)
Paired Monobloc 1 1/8″ Carbs
Competition Manual Advance Magneto
5 Gal Racing Tank
Domiracer Seat
The tach and speedo were restored by Nisongers.
The magneto was rebuilt by Doug Wood.
The only flaw is some acid stains on the left silencer from a vented battery (since replaced with a sealed unit).
The bike is very strong and smooth and is ready to ride.

1971 Norton 750 Commando – Gus Kuhn

With about 21 hours left in this eBay auction, here’s a chance to own a classic Gus Kuhn Norton that is fully kitted out. It’s definitely not a show bike, and as the seller claims it starts easily and runs great this would probably be a great bike for Sunday morning runs up to Alice’s Restaurant. That being said, I’m sure this bike would attract a lot of attention if it was parked at any classic bike show.

Here’s a list of parts fitted to the bike

Racing 850 Kit
Updated AMAL MK2
Tomaselli clip-on
Morris mag wheels
AP brake master cylinder
Frame and motor number matching

While reserve hasn’t been met yet, I’d bet that there will be a few more bids before the auction ends. The price currently stands at $3,750 with 8 bids.

1975 Ducati 860GT Cafe Racer

Sometimes, an easy litmus test can decide whether something is cool or lame. In the case of this Ducati, just think about riding up to your favorite local hangout. What’s the reaction going to be? Personally, I think this bike would garner looks as being an authentic cafe racer that is no trailer queen. A lot of the Ducatis you might see on Ducati Island at Laguna Seca aren’t going to have this many miles on the clock, nor this much road grime and wear-and-tear. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

There isn’t much that hasn’t been done to this bike cafe-wise. It has adjustable clip-ons, shocks, seat, tank, good brakes, and a big-bore kit. What it really needs is (and the seller backs this up) a bit of maintenance come this winter. And maybe a bath and some scrubbing, too.

The price on this bike is still very reasonable at under $2K with less than a day left in the auction (reserve hans’t been met, though). I wish it was on the west coast (it’s in Connecticut), because this may be a chance to get a good deal on a classic bevelhead.

1971 Norton Commando 850 Cafe Racer

First off, I would like to apologize for the poor quality of the previous bike and post. After taking a month plus off from blogging about the current crop of cafe racers, I was mostly discombobulated while writing that, given a comment or two that I received both online and in person. Be that as it may, it is time to move on to bigger and better things. Below you will see what I hope is my apology in action…

Here we have a really nice Commando 850 that has been entirely cafe’d. I am having trouble finding anything missing from this bike that would need upgrading immediately upon purchase. You could, of course, add higher-performance parts to it. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is basically a turnkey bike that the buyer can hop on and ride. The seller has been honest with the few issues that it has (speedo cable, oil weep, and tank dings), and it has a recently rebuilt engine. If there is anything I have missed that should be there (me not being a true Norton expert or anything like that), please let me know…

Currently, there is less than a day left in the auction, and the price is in the mid $4K range with 21 bidders. Perhaps it will break $5K before the auction ends. It isn’t perfect, but the seller is being very upfront with the issues it does have. Good luck if you bid…

1973 Honda CB500 Cafe Racer

There are cleanly built cafe racers, and there are cleanly built cafe racers. This bike clearly epitomizes the idea of taking a bike, and building into a cafe racer without doing anything crazy or over the top. Heck, this bike has drag bars, and I still like it!

What has been done to this bike is as follow:

Tons of energy put into making it a clean build.
Classic cafe racer seat.
Cylinder-head gone through and cleaned up.
Replacement of various mechanical bits and pieces including clutch plates, ignition, K&N filter conversion, and battery.
Aftermarket 4-4 exhaust.
Nice paint job.

Currently, bidding has put this bike at just under $2K with 11 interested bidders. There are only 9 hours left, so unless bidding picks up it might be possible to pick up this bike for a deal. Keep an eye on it if your interested. The seller has built a nice bike that will most likely make the buyer very happy. Good luck!

Check out that elbow!

1976 Moto Guzzi 850 LeMans

Sorry for the break from the blog, but I was busy. What can I say?

Up for auction right now on eBay is this really clean, pretty-but-not-truly-restored, Le Mans 850. It has almost 40K miles on it, but the odometer reads only 14K. The suspension is upgraded, and the engine has some upgraded electronics, so it should be a great ride once the carbs are gone through. Cosmetically, I like the bike overall, but I’m not a fan of Corbin seats (looks or sitting on them). The seller admits the bikes current issues and shortcomings in the listing, so if you are interested, click through and check them out.

There are 4 days left in the auction, with one bidder and the price currently at $5K. This seems like a decent bike that could use a good home, but the price seems like it might be a bit on the high side.

(From the seller’s listing)
- Body work repainted to original design pattern
- Stainless fasteners
- Stainless braided brake lines thru out
- Dyna III electronic ignition and dyna coils
- 38mm Marzocchi strada front end, make the bike very stable at high speed
- NOS Marzocchi rear shocks (wow!)
- Agostini rear sets
- Corbin seat is very comfortable on long rides
- BUB exhaust system
- ‘Square’ type front brake reservoir and lever makes it stop like a modern bike

1992 Harley-Davidson Sportster Cafe Racer

It’s been a while since I posted a Harley, and this is certainly a pretty well put together cafe racer made out of a Sportster. This has one of the fullest conversions I’ve seen on a US Sporty, and I really like it. I’ve listed below nearly all of the stuff that the seller put in his listing (The bad and the good), so I won’t go on too long about this bike. As with all Sportsters, this bike shows how hard it is to get the seat right. For some reason, these bikes always seem to have such a low seating position that it can’t be good for handling or comfortable to sit on (knees have got to be ablaze after a matter of 30 minutes or so).

Anyways, good luck to anyone who bids on this bike. It seems to be one of the better solid-mount Sportster conversions, and surprisingly, there are no bids yet with two days left. Maybe it is the $3,800 starting price? We’ll see when it ends…
The Bad

The blinkers are there but not working
The paint could be freshened up and there is a oil leak
The starter relay ($10) is out but there is a button on the starter that works well

The Good

15,500 miles
Only about 3K on the new 10:1 Wisco 1207 pistons and Andrews N6 cams
Progressive springs
Gas Charged adjustable shocks (compression and rebound dampers)
Daytona Steering damper
Rockwall clip-ons
Chainsikle rear sets with a Buell shifter
Airtech XR750 rear fender
Custom made seat
Viper fairing
7” headlight
Custom Gas tanks with billet race cap and High flow petcock
New Dunlop 205 tires front and back (still have the wiskers)
Thunder Slide kit
Screamin Eagle ECU
Crane adjustable push Rods
Screamin Eagle 2 into 1 pipe, packing removed.
New High torque Starter
New chain

1975 Yamaha XS650 Cafe Racer

Up for auction on eBay is the really nicely done Yamaha XS650 cafe racer. Like the bike I posted earlier today, it has been nearly entirely converted with nothing really left off that detracts from its cafe-ness. And it has a cool paint job. The only thing potentially missing is a “cafe”-style gas tank, but I think the XS650 looks great with either the stock tank or aftermarket. This is a clean build that shows off the potential of the XS as a good starting point for a cafe racer.

There are 2 days left in the auction and the price is just over $1,500. Good luck!

Rearsets = no kickstarter...

1974 Honda CB750 SOHC Cafe Racer

Here we have a cafe racer based on a 1974 Honda CB750 that has so much going right, and then a few things going a bit wrong. But before I get into that, I’ve got to say that it is for sale in a no-reserve auction, and the price is low right now, so keep that in mind.

First things first, the tank is sweet. Seller claims its heritage as having come from Carpy, which means it’s a choice piece of kit. It certainly looks nice, and is the nicest single thing on the bike. I also like the front end of the bike, with the clip-ons and large headlight creating that classic cafe silhouette. However, I’m not sure about the key mount. It seems like it could be simpler, but what do I know. And I like the seat, I think it just needs to be remounted a bit.

Overall, a decent cafe racer with some nice parts that just needs a few finishing touches (and some rear-sets (see the post from yesterday for some appropriate foot controls)). But with 5 days left in the auction and no reserve, it will be interesting to see what the auction closes at, and how much this bike is actually worth…

The most expensive cafe racer ever posted on this blog…

Okay, I’m sure this isn’t the most expensive cafe racer ever. But it is definitely the most expensive one I’ve ever posted. And it isn’t even an auction. $25K Buy-It-Now. And it’s in England…

What we have here is a Hogbitz cafe racer that is easily one of the more expensive Sportsters I’ve ever seen. What a beautiful bike. Now that it’s spring, the bikes are coming out of the woodwork, and I get to blog about some pretty cool machines. Hogbitz, in case you didn’t know, is a British company that takes Sportsters through 2003 and converts them to cafe racers for a fee (About $12-13K USD including bike for their most basic conversion). What we are looking at here is a very nice conversion that is being priced appropriately, but perhaps out of reach for most of us. Hopefully. I can finish the conversion of my own 2005 Sportster to something like this for much less than $25K even including my original purchase price. I am intrigued to see if this sells…
(Links below are to eBay and the actual bike being sold, the link in the text above is to Hogbitz)