Cafe Racer - Season 1 (2009)

Café Racer Episode One, revisit the origins of the fast, customized street bike through eyewitness accounts of the Rockers and ton-up boys themselves. Café Racer visits with Mark Wilsmore of Ace Café, London for some historical perspective on the early days of the scene, complete with rare, historical footage from the 1950s and ‘60s. Veterans of the mods and rockers dust-ups from British beaches tell their tales; Café Racer gears up for a look down the road at the coming trends, machines, events and builders keeping the ton-up tradition alive today.

In Café Racer’s second outing, join Largo, Florida’s Dime City Cycles in their search for the perfect project bike in a junkyard bristling with two-wheeled treasures; Brian Richardson, a sheep farmer and country lawyer from the wilds of Bluegrass, Virginia launches his quest to build the world’s first electric-powered Norton café racer; Dallas does it up big with their annual Mods and Rockers rally while music legend Billy Joel rides with Café Racer and recalls some of his favorite fast bikes.

This week we’ll meet J&B Moto Co. a café emporium located in the heart of Harley-Davidson country; Florida’s Dime City Cycles tear into their project bike to find some good- and bad surprises; After 35 years in the red, England’s Norton Motorcycles make a comeback and invites Café Racer to test the new 961 Commando; Virginia farmer Brian Richardson faces off against some of the big guns in roadracing on his barn-built Norton Electra, zero-emissions café racer.

Café Racer travels to the cornfields of Davenport, Iowa where former chopper builder Greg Hageman unearths a project bike in his family’s barn; York, Pennsylvania’s J&B Moto Co. attempt to build a café racer version of the world’s most famous roadracing motorcycle; Café Racer magazine road tester Blake Kelly moves from illegal to legit as he switches careers from stunt rider to roadracer; Dime City Cycles complete their project bike and hand it over for testing to a classic roadracer.

Café Racer makes a visit to the annual Mods VS Rockers rally in Chicago, the nation’s longest-running café event; our in Davenport, Iowa builder Greg “Doc’s Chops” Hageman completes the rebuild of his barn-find Honda CX 500 V-twin while we meet Long Beach California’s Jay LaRossa, a former hot rod car designer whose turned his attention to Japanese café bikes from the 1970s; meanwhile, the crew from Pennsylvania’s J&B Moto Co. hand their Yamaha XS 650 monoshock custom over the pro roadracers Eric and Ben Bostrom for a high-speed test ride