Are Cafe Racers Good For Beginners? [ Here’s The Answer ]

Café racers continue to amaze young riders with their minimalistic and sleek bodies. These lightweight motorcycles are powerful enough, besides ensuring decent handling and speed optimization. Being a motorcycle enthusiast, it’s natural to fall in love with these bikes. Efficient handling makes them ideal for beginners as well as seasoned bikers. Well, you might be wondering whether or not these stylish motorcycles would be apt for young riders or beginners. To give you a short answer, these bikes can suit certain riders, while others must look for alternatives. The physique of the rider, as well as their intended use of the motorcycle largely governs this aspect.

Let’s check out when a café racer can be an ideal pick for beginners.

Are cafe racers good for beginners?

Yes, café racers can be a decent pick for beginners, provided the rider habitually takes an upright position while sitting. As a first bike, these motorcycles can be excellent. The riding position is comfortable enough, while you would love their exemplary handling. The engine comes in the right size too.

Well, you don’t get to enjoy as much flexibility in a motorcycle that a car bestows you with. So, it’s natural that you won’t come across adjustable features in a bike such as a modifiable seat. This explains why some riders prefer building their respective café racers. However, if you don’t like the idea of custom-building a café racer, you need to settle for one that fits you well.

These bikes generally have a higher seating position compared to other bikes. Shorter riders might find it a bit challenging to handle café racers. Normally, this height ranges between 30 and 33 inches. As a new rider, you should be able to plant your feet properly on the ground. This would add stability to your rides. Next, consider the saddle shape in these bikes before you finalize your decision. Since café riders have the rider mounted over the multi-cylinder engine, the saddles tend to be wider. This implies that the legs of the rider need to stretch around the saddle to a greater extent. This implies that you might find it more challenging to reach the ground with your legs.

Nevertheless, if you are tall enough, riding a café racer shouldn’t be an issue for you.

What makes case racers good for beginners?

Have a look at the perks and drawbacks of café racers for beginners.

Perks

• Café racers come with mid-foot controls, which make the learning process breezy. You would get the feeling of learning to ride a bicycle as a beginner. Handling these bikes involves forward control, which implies that you need to extend your legs at the front and lean the upper body part a little backward. A subtle recline is what you need.
• The typical riding position in a café racer makes it easy to master cornering and handling the bike.
• These are stylish and iconic bikes, which appeal to new riders like a classic piece of machine.
• In terms of engine size, café races generally come in the midrange. Therefore, it is easy to retain your comfort, regardless of the speed you are picking.
• As café racer parts are usually inexpensive, you can seamlessly get your motorcycle customized.

Drawbacks

• If you don’t have enough height, stabilizing your ride might turn out to be difficult as your legs won’t touch the ground.
• These bikes are only ideal for riding around the city. After long rides, they turn out to be a bit uncomfortable.
• There’s no room to carry luggage or equipment on these bikes.
• Reliability turns out to be a question for vintage bikes. However, reputed brands are currently producing reliable vehicles with similar designs.

How good are café racers for short riders?

The seats of café riders are higher than standard bikes. Besides, these seats are wider than the average ones. So, short riders need to modify the bikes to make them suitable for themselves.

However, if you are short only by a few inches, there’s a way to bypass these modifications. For instance, if you put on boots or shoes with thicker soles, you might manage to touch the ground in a sitting position on your café racer.

Besides, you might try to steer the motorcycle in the other direction where you tend to put the foot down. Therefore, the bike would be in a tilted position and form a tripod. This position is likely to give you more stability during the rides.

Also, it makes sense to integrate some kind of saddle accessories. This would help you lower the seat height to some extent.

Are café racers good for commutes and long rides?

Commuting is exactly what the manufacturers build café racers for. They prove to be outstanding town motorcycles. When you ride within the city, you need to dodge obstacles. This is where café racers outperform other bikes. Besides, it is easy to park a café racer, thanks to its size.

As for long rides, café racers are not the best option. These are simple and small bikes that the manufacturers never designed for highways. Moreover, there’s no adequate space to accommodate your luggage when you travel long distances. Of course, you can integrate touring bags and sissy bars into a café bike. However, this can take a toll on the speed and performance of these bikes.

 How comfortable are café racers?

Café racers prove to be comfortable enough when you ride them around the town. This is what the manufacturers design them for. However, even seasoned riders can feel cramped when you take them for long trips. So, to make the most of a café racer in terms of comfort, make sure not to travel out of town with these machines.

The skinny frame in these bikes makes them amazingly easy to park. Also, you can quickly start the motorcycles. So, you can seamlessly weave along the lanes and alleys of the city with a café racer.

Best café racers that beginners should choose

• The Triumph Street Twin is a reliable Café Racer to go for. The manufacturer has even integrated this vehicle with different ride modes, ABS, a powerful motor, and a traction control system. Along with this, you get the vintage exteriors.
• The Honda CB100 happens to be a great café racer. This bike has a large fuel-injected engine, and you might love its stylish looks.
• You might also like the Norton Commando 961 Cafe Racer. This is a 78-horsepower bike that comes with an adjustable suspension. The rides are smooth and stylish, just like those vintage days.

Are café racers reliable?

The reliability of a used café racer depends on how well the original owner maintained or stored it. The frequency of their rides, driving habits, and the parts that they integrated also determine the reliability.

New café racers come with enhanced features such as advanced suspension, fuel injection, and CPUs. This makes the bikes much more dependable.

Café racer maintenance cost

If you go for a vintage bike, parts replacements would be more frequent. This can add to the financial burden on the owner. In general, you need to out anything between $100 and $200 for an oil change. However, if you want to replace parts and rebuild the carbs, the maintenance costs would be quite high.

Conclusion

Café racers can be ideal for tall beginners, provided they travel within the city. The sleek design and lightweight nature make them ideal for short and quick trips. If you are comfortable with shelling out the maintenance costs for café racers, there shouldn’t be anything holding you back from acquiring one of these vintage machines.