HYBRID HARLEY FROM A VELO FELLOW
The British-inspired cult of the café racer has a hard time of it these days outside the UK, where the smaller European exponents like Magni, Paton, Bakker and even Bimota before Kawasaki rescued it have found it hard to stay afloat when faced with the mass of bureaucratic red tape and increasingly restrictive, costly and complicated Euro 5 norms they need to meet to stay in business.
But in Britain, thanks to the SVA single-vehicle approval system which permits individual homologation of one-off or small volume production motorcycles, the little guy still lives to make a handful of motorcycles each year that fit a particular niche in the marketplace. Look at Chris Ratcliffe’s Langen Motorcycles as a prime example, or indeed Norton Motorcycles during its decade-plus of Stuart Garner’s ownership, where none of the models it produced was ever homologated officially in the UK. This includes even the top-selling 961 Commando, each example of which delivered to its British owner was only licensed for the road under SVA approval.
Which makes it a great pity that Evesham-based Goodman Engineering didn’t survive into the 21st century to continue producing its Anglo-American café racers. These had been well received back in 1990 when owner Simon Goodman tried to relaunch the concept of a traditional British café racer, but in a 90s context with the best of modern hardware. And an American engine.
‘I always thought the classic British café racer’s time would come again, and it has,’ he told me when I went to ride the bike he sought to prove that with. ‘I wanted to market an unfaired twin-cylinder sports bike that was lean and light-handling – built brand new, but traditional in character. I wanted to use an uprated version of the Norton Featherbed chassis we already manufactured to strictly
