ORIENTAL ANGLES
Last time this column’s ramblings touched upon the period café racers of the 1960s and 70s – or rather their scarcity today. Despite some fairly detailed investigation Sondel Shadows are now only notable by their apparent total non-existence. Neither complete examples nor their component parts seem to surface, which is a tad annoying to say the least. Despite hurtling towards HMG’s official retirement age, there still remains the motivation to complete what has now become a decade-long project to build my own café racer.
It’s worth noting here that the mind’s eye image is true(ish) to the original and an authentic persona of the espresso sprinter and not the modern hipster take thereof!
So, diagonally embossed tan seat covers won’t be featuring on this build. Neither will wheels sans mudguards, cavernous holes where once lived side panels and air boxes, cut-down seat pans or strangely patterned tyres that might look funky but are of dubious veracity. That said, I can genuinely see the attraction – an angle grinder, some files, a drill, a few eBay goodies and you could probably knock up something viable over a long weekend, ready to be painted the following week. However, that is precisely what won’t be populating this particular garage. Oh, no, we’re going to be doing it the hard way.
Making a rod for one’s own back is a quintessential part of building anything that comes under the working title of ‘a special’. And should you choose to go off the beaten track, then you’ll need to be aware that pretty much everything will have to be crafted to fit. Go into this maelstrom of metal with your eyes closed and it will, without exception, hurt. Bespoke parts, hand crafted by those that have the skills, the tools and the expertise, are never going to be cheap. Simply put, it’s not the sort of thing you want to be farming out to anyone who pays their staff at minimum wages level. You will be paying – and paying heavily – for custom engine brackets, refabricated swinging arms, tailormade fork yokes and all the other relevant parts needed. Few who enter the one-way revolving doors which are very clearly marked ‘Custom Build’ actually expect to be able to sell the resultant machine at a profit later on.
Even if a restoration, renovation or rebuild causes hassles, you know that, with a standard Japanese machine, all the parts you took off will ultimately go back on. With a custom build nothing, but nothing, is guaranteed here. Many opt for pod filters simply because marrying up aftermarket carburettors to an airbox is a pain of royal proportions. Rearset footrests will, without exception, impinge upon the stylish exhaust chosen, fork stanchions and/or legs will invariably collide with fuel tanks and socalled universal seats will be anything but. This is the nature of enterprise.
And yet, despite the financial penury, the countless double-backs, the sitting-on-hands waiting for someone to weld or machine stuff, there are rewards. Solving all or any of the above issues imparts an amazing feeling of success to the owner/builder. Just getting the routing of the carb cables right is worthy of a cheeky pint! Custom-built motorcycles are an acquired taste but, once sampled, it’s remarkably hard to look at disparate unrelated engines and frames and not start fomenting plans!