Cafe Racer week at mono motorcycles. The scorching weather has allowed mono motorcycles to get out & about a little more this week. The workshop was closed on Saturday 21st July, as we were attending the Cafe Racer Cup, Lydden Hill hosted by the Bike Shed MC. We also have a stunning Yamaha XS 400 cafe racer in for assessment & Katy Jane has been catching people’s eyes again with her AJS Cadwell. A true celebration of the cafe racer this week at mono motorcycles.

What a fantastic day at the Bike Shed MC ‘Cafe Racer Cup’ Stunning bikes, glorious weather, great racing & brilliant atmosphere. This year spectators, next year, Daniel Morris & I will be racers!

The day was a true celebration of the Bike Shed MC’s cultural connection to the ‘new wave’ cafe racer lifestyle. The motorcycles arrived road ready & the morning was spent watching glorious examples of cafe racers charge around the track at Lydden Hill.

The day was laid out as a track day style event in the morning & then a three tiered race event in the afternoon.  Novices, intermediate & the fast group all took turns in qualifying events, with the final three races being held later in the afternoon.

Charley Boorman, one of  mono motorcycles heroes, put the Triumph  Thruxton R through it’s paces & MCN’s Adam Child on the Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe Racer, won first place in the fast group.

From the new BMW R nineT Racer, Suzuki SV650X & Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe Racer cafe, through to immaculately engineered one off motorcycles; the day really put the Cafe Racer motorcycle well & truly on centre stage.

The Bike Shed Motorcycle Club started in 2011 as a blog written by Anthony “Dutch” van Someren.  “Dutch”  was writing about his experiences as a modern sportsbike rider & the cafe racer resurgence. Four years later & having approached some motorcycle minded investors; The Bike Shed MC opened it’s doors on a 12,000 square foot venue across four renovated railway arches in the heart of it’s original home, Shoreditch. The premise for the site was to cultivate a ‘new wave’ cafe racer lifestyle stopping place for bikers & motorbike enthusiasts alike. The Shoreditch site boasts a restaurant, parking for 60 bikes on street, galleries for bikes & art, an event space & even a barbershop.

When mono motorcycles returned from Lydden Hill, we then of course had our breakfast club on Sunday 22nd July. It was truly wonderful to see such a great mix of motorcyclists & such a great selection of motorbikes.

Friends & new faces mixed together on Sunday morning, all taking advantage of the delicious breakfast provided by Buns to Banquets. Some stayed for the entire morning & others came & went, dropping in for a pit stop; which is exactly our reasoning for the breakfast club.

Our next breakfast club on Sunday 26th August will feature a classic motorcycle display & we will be making a collection for SERV Wessex Blood Runners.

Back into the mono motorcycles workshop on Monday & the Suzuki Marauder VZ 800 was in for a full service.

As always, Daniel Morris undertakes thorough safety checks of any motorcycle we have in the workshop. In this case he noted that the front pads were excessively worn. Once the customer had been advised, he was more than happy for them to be replaced.

The Yamaha XS 400 cafe racer has been brought to mono motorcycles by one of our existing customers. He has a collection of motorcycles, but the XS has caused him a few issues since owning it. The XS 400 engine has a bit of a reputation in cafe racer circles, of being unreliable & suffering with charging faults.

The Yamaha XS 400 has already had several alterations made in an attempt to cure the fault. The stator has been rewired, the rectifier & the regulator have been removed & this has made no difference to the unreliability of the engine.

Our customer, having already made headway with research about the engine, has furnished us with some considerable reading material & a contact at Mikes XS, specialist XS parts provider.

Thus far Daniel Morris has been able to get the XS running, but having already tested the stator, there is no output at all. The XS is also being assessed for a considerable oil leak.

We end our week with a Yamaha R1 in the workshop. The clutch is slipping & rattling, which makes it appear it probably needs replacing. In addition, the R1 has a blown exhaust.

Katy Jane has been out & about on the  AJS Cadwell this week & as always wherever she goes, it is a head turner. The AJS Cadwell 125 has a YBR 125 engine & is built in China. Despite the fact that it is built in China, the AJS family are still owners of the name & it still a British going concern.

“AJS was re-started by the late Fluff Brown in September 1974. Fluff, who was previously the off road competition manager at Norton Villiers, bought out the ailing company and the entire stock of AJS Stormer scrambles parts.
Fluff continued the parts supply for the AJS Stormer and produced affordable FB-AJS Moto X machines for the clubman racer, and 250cc trail bikes.

Fluff’s eldest son Nick Brown, joined the company in 1987 and was soon looking at the array of small, affordable motorcycles built in China. One of the first children’s Chinese built off road bikes available in the UK was the Jianshe Coyote-80. It was first imported and distributed through a dealer network by AJS in 1998. “https://www.ajsmotorcycles.co.uk/about-ajs

As always, for all your motorcycling needs, contact Daniel or Katy on 01243 576212 / 07899 654446 or contact us through our contact page.