Cafe Racer

Café racer styling evolved throughout the time of their popularity. By the mid-1970s, Japanese bikes had overtaken British bikes in the marketplace, and the look of real Grand Prix racing bikes had changed. The hand-made, frequently unpainted racing fuel tanks of the 1960s had evolved into square, narrow, fiber glass tanks. Increasingly, three-cylinder two-strokes, four-cylinder four-stroke Z1, and four-cylinder engines were the basis for café racer conversions.

In the mid-1970s, riders continued to modify standard production motorcycles into so-called "café racers" by simply equipping them with club man bars and a small fairing around the headlight. A number of European manufacturers, including produced factory "café" variants of their standard motorcycles in this manner, without any modifications made to make them faster or more powerful, a trend that continues today