KTM Cafe Racers

KTM is one of Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturers. Widely recognized a manufacturer of off-road motorcycles KTM holds over 250 world championship titles and has dominated the revered Dakar Rally from 2001 to 2018. Although the Austrian marques roots are in off-road motorcycles they have been building street bikes since the 1990's. With their bold orange livery, KTM street bikes such as the Duke are often referred to as 'fun' motorcycles that offer great handling and 'ready to race' components. While you won't often see KTMs being used as donors for cafe racer projects there's no denying they are worthy candidates.

Minority Customs KTM RC 250 Cafe Racer

When we think of off-road motorcycles it’s often the bright orange bodywork of KTM that first comes to mind. The Austrian manufacturer earnt this reputation through 67 years of manufacturing and by winning countless enduro and motocross events. On the other hand, when we think of modern classics, KTM wouldn’t even get…

KTM

Dynamite – Unikat BMW K1100LT

Mentioning Grand Tourer and cafe racer in the same sentence isn’t something you’ll see me do often. That’s because bikes that are inherently heavy, such as tourers, are generally deemed too big to be suitable donors for cafe racer builds. If you strip away the excess on most tourers you’re still left…

BMW
KTM

Big Red – KTM Café Racer

“I’ve discovered I love building bikes almost as much as I like riding them!” – Joe Loss. Joe’s disorder is one that many of us can relate to. You start out riding motorcycles as a form of transport for a bit of fun, and end up spending all your spare time tinkering on…

KTM

The Duke of Jakarta – Studio Motor KTM Cafe Racer

If you happen to follow Return of the Cafe Racers movements on Facebook or Instagram you’d have seen we spent a fair bit of time over in the Emerald Isle, otherwise known as Indonesia, last year. We discovered an incredible amount of talented custom builders spread throughout the country, but it was in…

KTM

Engineered to Slide KTM Cafe Racer

It’s not often we see off-road motorcycles converted into Cafe racers. A while back we were blown away by Drake McElroy’s Cafe’d Honda CR250 and now a fellow Australian has built this eyebrow-raising Cafe Racer out of his KTM 250EXC-F. Nigel Petrie is the owner of Engineered to Slide a company built…

KTM

Roland Sands Cafe Racers

Roland Sands has created several custom motorcycles he has labeled as Cafe Racers and although purists would question if these bikes deserve the title no one can question how well made they are. Two Harley Sportster based Cafe Racers and one Honda CR500 Cafe Racer complete the Cafe Racer category on his…