newbie want cafe racer

[illuminati]

This week I bought the touring leather jacket by speedgear,it has the armour pads on the back,shoulder and elbow, I got a great bargain for it.Now I want a motorcycle to go with it.I love the cafe style motorcycles ,especially the way the seat and handlebar looks.The triumph and the bsa are hard to come by,so the second best would be the honda cb series from the 70's or even some of the suzukis I believe were made into cafe racers.If anybody has a great bargain I would appreciate a heads up.

[green meenie]

While I would applaud your effort to buy good gear before getting on a bike, it sounds kind of odd that you would purchase a particular style bike to suit the jacket you just bought?? Be that as it may; you'll probably have a hard time locating what you're looking for and could pay dearly for it if it's vintage stuff (check ebay tho). Sounds like you're just starting out as well so, you might want to consider looking at the low end "sport or sport-touring" offerings from Kawi or Honda - nothing over 250cc for your first ride tho.
Take the MSF course & get your license then take it easy for awhile. You can trade up after a couple of year's experience and your starter bike will sell easily if you maintain it cuz they're always in high demand.

Godd luck with all that & welcome out

[illuminati]

You must be psychic or something,because I'm planning to take my msf course in august,and I've been checking out e-bay for a cafe racer for quite some time,I was just hoping there was a bike that was affordable,but you'r right ,first things first.

[green meenie]

Check out those bikes I mentioned. Used, would be great if you can fine one you like. Either one is great. They're nice & light, handle GREAT and not so much power that you're gonna get yourself into trouble right away.
Work up slowly on the power thing.

[dean owens]

if i were you here's what i would do. i would look for a ujm from the mid to late 70's in pretty good condition. i would think anything from 350-650. learn on that. they have a standard seating and that's easier to learn to ride on. after you've learned to ride you could either turn around and sell your standard to get a cafe racer or turn your standard into a cafe racer. nice cafe racers can get pretty pricy.

just my thoughts

[beardking]

if i were you here's what i would do. i would look for a ujm from the mid to late 70's in pretty good condition. i would think anything from 350-650. learn on that. they have a standard seating and that's easier to learn to ride on. after you've learned to ride you could either turn around and sell your standard to get a cafe racer or turn your standard into a cafe racer. nice cafe racers can get pretty pricy.

just my thoughts

The only problem I have with this bit of advice is that it assumes that the person can work on bikes. This is what I did, and so far, my riding experiences have been anything but favorable. Not because the UJM's aren't good choices, it's that they are old and prone to breaking down. I bought an 82 XJ650 that was running good at the time I bought it and I was happy. I road the bike around the neighborhoods a few times, and I was happy. I took the bike on what was supposed to be about a 20 mile ride, the bike started acting up in the middle of it, died and I ended up having to get it hauled home...I was not happy. Because of my lack of experience and lack of disposable funds to have the bike worked on, I was never quite able to get the bike running right, and I didn't put more than 100 miles on the bike in the year that I owned it.

So, while this advice is good on the surface, the OP needs to think about 1) is he mechanically inclined enough to keep the 20+ year old bike running, 2) if not, does he know someone who would be willing to help him, 3) is he willing to take the chance of not being able to ride much if the first two are not there?

[blues2cruise]

Welcome to TMW.