Motorcycle Reviews

Ride Review – Husqvarna Vitpilen 701

I’d been burning around town on the Svartpilen 401 for a week. The time had finally come to exchange it for the top of the range Husqvarna Vitpilen 701. This was the one I’d be waiting for. Although Husqvarna doesn’t openly state it, this bike is without a doubt a modern interpretation…

Ride Review – Husqvarna Svartpilen 401

Too much hype can lead to disappointment. We see it almost every time Apple reveals a new product or there’s another episode added to the Star Wars saga. Marketers feed us juicy images and teaser videos to get us all excited, but when the product arrives it doesn’t deliver. This was my…

10 Off-The-Shelf Modern Cafe Racers

Is there such a thing as a factory built cafe racer? If you ask a purist they’ll tell you no way, but Honda, Ducati, Triumph, BMW and several other manufacturers are determined to have you thinking otherwise. It’s become pretty clear that this Cafe Racer fad is well and truly here to…

BROWSE CATALOGUE

Ride Review – Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe

I have to confess I tend to get a bit excited when a motorcycle manufacturer announces they are releasing a cafe racer styled machine. I suppose it has something to do with me running this cafe racer focused website for the last 12 years. Unfortunately, my excitement often leads to disappointment when…

Ride Review – Ducati Scrambler Café Racer

A couple of weeks back I flew to Sydney to take part in a ride hosted by Ducati Australia called the ‘Sydney Scramble’. The ride brought a few good people from the online motorcycle community together for 2 days of fun on the current 803cc Scrambler range. We weaved our way a…

Ride Review – Kawasaki Z900RS

Towards the end of 2017 when the Tokyo Motor and EICMA shows took place I got more than a little excited about the year that lay ahead. This is because during said shows several manufacturers unveiled new motorcycles that appealed to my retro-obsessed aesthetic. Amongst them was a new contender in the…

Ride Review – Moto Guzzi V7 III Racer

After being away from home for the last half of 2017 and without a motorcycle I was chuffed when Moto Guzzi Australia offered up one of their latest models for me to review. It’s been a while since I’d been in the saddle of a Moto Guzzi. My last MG test bike…

Cafe Contenders – Yamaha SR400 and SR500

At some stage, the tide turned against Yamaha’s SR400 and SR500. It might just be that I’m in Australia and we’ve been saturated with years of Deus-built specials. But there’s been a rising level of snark towards cafe racers built around Yamaha’s evergreen classic. It seems that these days it takes a…

2018 Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 Revealed

In our recent feature discussing the cafe racer styled motorcycles at EICMA 2017 we left something very important out, but it was no accident. We’ve been impatiently awaiting the release of Husqvarna’s production version of the Vitpilen 701 for what feels like a decade…well 3 years really, but who’s counting. The Swedes…

Café Contenders – 2001 to 2016 Triumph Bonneville range

For years the de facto choice when building a cafe racer was the air-cooled, 865cc Triumph Bonneville. With very few changes it dominated the retro market for a generation – from its Hinkley manufactured beginnings in 2001 to its final EFI form rolled out of Thailand fifteen years later. And that’s because…

Café Contenders – The Kawasaki W650

It seems strange now, but Kawasaki actually beat Triumph to the punch when it came to retro-styled motorcycles. First released in 1999, the W650 was a complete anachronism in the world of water-cooled, high-revving street snarlers that dominated the late 90’s motorcycle scene. So while the rest of the world was obsessed…