Best Café Racer motorbikes (2024)

If there are two dominant themes in the current biking fashion for all things retro then, after scramblers, it has to be that of the café racer. 

Like scramblers, historically, café racers were originally production road bikes from the 1950s and ‘60s that had been modified, either by their owners or specialist customising shops. The difference here, though, is while scramblers were adapted for the dirt with the likes of high bars and mudguards and knobbly tyres, café racers were customised for street speed.

The term ‘café racer’, meanwhile, grew out of the ‘50s café and coffee shop culture in Britain where, in the late ‘50s, disaffected teens who could afford two wheels for the first time and were influenced by the new rock ‘n’ roll of the likes of Bill Haley, Eddie Cochrane and Gene Vincent, used to congregate. The most famous of these, of course, was London’s Ace Café.

At places like this, it was a short hop for these bored and boisterous youths, with their rocker Brylcreemed quiffs and personalised biker leather jackets, to begin street racing, either to other cafes or, famously, to a pre-determined point and back before a favourite 45 on the café juke box played out. Inevitably, in the search for speed, modifications to their Triumphs, BSAs and Nortons followed, influenced by the track and including clip-on handlebars, performance tuning and exhausts and the occasional cockpit fairing. The café racer was born.

Today, originals like the Triton (which married Triumph’s fast Bonneville twin engine with Norton’s fine-handling featherbed chassis) are revered classics in their own right. But in recent years the increasing interest in the style of those bikes has spawned a whole generation of brand new, retro-styled machines specifically re-creating the café racer look and feel. Re-born Triumph arguably got the whole bandwagon rolling with its reinvented Triumph Thruxton, a pepped-up, drop-barred version of its Bonneville retro roadster, in 2003. But in the last few years it’s been joined by similarly themed café racers from the likes of Royal Enfield, Ducati and even the Japanese brands with Yamaha’s new XSR900GP retro reinventing this time, not the ‘60s, but the 500GP era of the 1980s and ‘90s, with, as a result, a huge variety of café racers to choose from. So, to help you get up to speed, here’s our Top 10 of the current best, in ascending price order…

Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, £5599

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? KTM-revived Husqvarna’s new single-cylinder roadsters are many things: one is good old fashioned, single cylinder punchy fun, another is sort of retro-ey style and the third confusing. So, let’s sort the last one out first. Now KTM owned, a pair of Husqvarna roadster singles using KTM powerplants had been doing the show rounds for a few years as concept bikes. In 2019 these were finally launched and comprised the Svartpilen (‘black arrow’) roadster and Vitpilen (‘white arrow’) lower-barred, café racer-esque version, with both available in 401 (373cc, actually, from the KTM 390 Duke), 125 and 701 (692cc, from the KTM 690 Duke) forms. Yes, they’re not particularly retro and certainly hasn’t a British Ace Café vibe, but a purer modern take on the café racer theme we can’t think of. These have now been updated and restyled for 2024 (and now with only one bigger, 801 version, in Svartpilen form) and the 401 Vitpilen is particular is brilliant fun and also more affordable than many expect.

Read our Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen review here.

CF Moto 700 CL-X Sport, £6399

CF Moto is probably the most ambitious and advanced of the upcoming Chinese manufacturers, partly due to part ownership by KTM (CF Moto makes the 790 Adventure for the Austrian firm), use of the same design house – Kiska Design – and sharing of some parts. The CL-X came out in 2022, is powered by a reworked, enlarged version of Kawasaki’s old ER6 parallel twin, and this Sport version is the café racer variant with different riding position and uprated components. It’s a decent effort, too. There is decent suspension, Brembo brakes and the produces a healthy, relatively competitive 73bhp with 47lbft or torque. On the slight downside, it’s not as refined or effective as most European or Japanese offerings, its dealer network isn’t as good and there is a question mark over residuals. But for the price, it’s a lot of café racer.

Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, from £6599

Historic British brand Royal Enfield is once again going places. Now owned by the vast Indian Eicher automotive group, in 2015 it took over UK chassis specialists Harris Performance and soon after set up a multi-million, all-new design facility in Leicestershire headed by former Triumph product leads Simon Warburton and Mark Wells. This all-new, 650 twin was its first product, launched in 2019 in two guises, the Bonneville-esque Interceptor and the café racer Continental GT, and both have proved a big success.

Both share a new, air-cooled, 648cc, 47bhp twin, Harris-designed tubular steel twin loop frame and cycle parts including wire wheels, disc brakes and telescopic fork/twin shock suspension. But the roadster Interceptor has upright, one-piece bars, a bigger and more bulbous tank where the Continental has lower, café racer style clip-ons, slimmer, smaller tank complete with ‘Monza’ filler cap and optional single racer seat.

Inevitably the ride is similar, too: a willing, thrummy, A2-compliant motor and easy, sweet handling. Build and equipment is adequate rather than inspiring, but the look is great, the experience easy and evocative and the value, thanks to being built in India, incontestable. For this look and badge, little at this price comes close.

Here’s our Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 review.

Suzuki SV650X, £7999

Although probably the least convincing and authentic as a café racer and possibly the most disingenuous of all the retros here, the Suzuki SV-X is still a decent bike at a tempting price. Introduced in 2018 it’s basically a mildly restyled SV650, which itself was reintroduced in 2016 after a facelift and update and which dates all the way back to 1999, so don’t expect much in the way of cutting-edge tech although it has now been updated again to meet 2021 Euro5 regs. The SV is cute, clean, honest and a perky performer at a great price while the £500 more expensive X adds a ribbed seat, lower bars, nose cowling and different paint. True, that doesn’t add up to a credible retro but it does add a touch of retro style to an already decent bike and the slightly more café racer feel somehow makes it more engaging and fun to ride, too. The 75bhp V-twin is one of motorcycling’s greats, as well.

Read our Suzuki SV650X review here.

Ducati Scrambler 800 Nightshift, £10,995

Slightly odd one, this, if only because this Ducati is trying to be a scrambler and a café racer at the same time, which is surely some kind of contradiction. But the success of the Italian marque’s whole retro Scrambler family has been such we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Ducati’s 800cc Scrambler family have all been big hits since being introduced as novice-friendly but still perky retros, as inspired by Ducati’s legendary Scrambler singles of the ‘60s and ‘70s, starting in 2015. There has been numerous different models and updates since with the current line-up comprising three 800s, the base Icon, the flat-track styled Full Throttle and, this, the café racer flavoured Nightshift. (There is also a more potent 1100, see below.) The 800s all feature 75bhp, decent brakes and mono-shock rear suspension with the blacked out Nightshift distinguished by its sportier stance, flat bars, side number plates, sporty front fender and wire wheels.

Read our Ducati Scrambler Nightshift review here.

Yamaha XSR900GP £12,506

One of the most eagerly anticipated bikes of 2024 may push the strict ‘café racer’ definition, somewhat, being a modern, liquid-cooled triple with styling influences taken from GP bikes of the 1980s and ‘90s but there is no disputing that it’s a heritage style machine and a sporty one at that, so that’s enough for us to include it here. And it’s a belter, too. Basically a mash-up of Yamaha’s latest, brilliant 117bhp MT-09 roadster (engine, uprated brakes, fully adjustable suspension, new TFT dash and switchgear) and the current XSR900 retro version (longer swing arm, tank etc) plus with its own sportier riding position, half-fairing and seat unit, the GP looks great and rides even better. It’s also not so extreme that it’s uncomfortable or impractical on the road. If you want a great all-round road sportster and in your head you want to play at being Eddie Lawson or Wayne Rainey it’s a feel-good bike par excellence.

Watch our Yamaha XSR900GP review video here.

Suzuki Katana, £12,699

As the new XSR900GP proves, most Japanese takes on the retro bike theme tend to be different from the British rocker image many try to adhere to – which is only natural considering their very different motorcycling heritage. The Suzuki Katana is another example of this. New in 2019, instead of being an Ace Café style road racer, the Katana gets its inspiration from Suzuki’s German Target Design styled Katanas of the early ‘80s which were topped off by the 1981 GSX1100S. That bike was a more sporty, radically styled version of the then top four-cylinder superbike, the GSX1100, which proved not just a winner on track but, in essence, reinvented the café racer theme for the 1980s. This reinvention takes the modern GSX-S1000 roadster and dresses it up in ‘80s inspired, Katana-esque clothes. Overall, it’s done pretty well. On the downside, the tank’s a fairly small 12 litres and it’s not as affordable as it might have been but as an evocative, fun, sporty ‘80s throwback with modern performance it’s a very welcome option.

Read our Suzuki Katana review here.

Triumph Thruxton 1200 RS, £14,195

The historic British firm are masters of all things ‘retro’, as proven by its stupendous and mouth-watering Thruxton R café racer, as fully re-invented in 2016 with a 96bhp 1200cc twin and genuinely sporty chassis sprinkled with Ohlins and Brembos. That model was further improved for 2020 to become the Thruxton RS. Lighter than the previous Thruxton R, more powerful (by 7bhp, taking peak power up to 103bhp) and even better equipped, the RS is not only a genuinely authentic café racer, it’s a brilliantly performing sportster in its own right complete with a raft of sporty electronics including rider modes and traction control, lightweight alloy 17-inch wheels, twin four-pot Brembos a quality twin shock suspension package and more. On board, despite the slightly dropped bars, it’s comfortable and easy but when you crack open that throttle there’s real fire and punch in its belly. Lighter, shaper, better braked and more eager than ever, the Thruxton RS might not be cheap, but it’s about as classy and effective as retro café racers get.

Read our Triumph Thruxton/R Buying Guide here.

Ducati Scrambler 1100 Sport Pro, £14,495

Following on from the success of its more entry-level 800 Scramblers, Ducati added a family of 1100cc versions aimed at more experienced riders with more performance, tech (and higher prices) from 2018. The Sport Pro is now the sole survivor. Although the performance gain is actually quite minimal (producing 85bhp from the 800’s 75, although there is a heftier boost in torque), they are a more involving, classier, sporty ride thanks to the Ohlins suspension. There is also uprated electronics with three riding modes, full Brembo radial brakes while the style and attitude is pukka café racer with flat bars, rearset pegs, bar-end mirrors and blacked out styling. Italian café racers currently don’t get any more engaging – or authentic.

Read our Ducati Scrambler 1100 Sport Pro review here.

MV Agusta Superveloce, £18,980

When it comes to exotic pedigree, café racers don’t get much more desirable, exclusive – or expensive – than the Superveloce from Italian exotica specialists MV Agusta. First presented as a concept bike to gauge public response in 2018, MV put its retro sportster into production the following year and have now supplemented it with a blinged up, ‘S’ version (for £21,600). Essentially MV’s F3 800 three-cylinder F3 supersports but with new, retro-inspired styling, one-off 3:1:3 exhaust and full-colour TFT dash to deliver a magical mix of MVs old and new. Yes, at approaching £20K, it’s not cheap, but it is gorgeous and hugely potent. 

Catch our MV Agusta Superveloce review here.

Best used café racers

Fancy a used café racer? Here’s our five of the best:

2017-20 BMW R nineT Racer, £5500-8300

Now-deleted half-faired café racer version of popular R nineT roadster.

2018-2023 Kawasaki Z900RS Café, £6700-9300

Now deleted café racer, nose-fairing-ed version of popular Z900RS retro

2016-23 Triumph Thruxton R, £6950-12,000

Middle-spec (between base S and RS) variant of definitive Triumph café racer.

2011-16 Moto Guzzi V7 Racer, £6200-7000

Café racer-styled premium spec version of popular Guzzi V7 retro roadster.

2014-current Royal Enfield 535 Continental GT, £2500-3700

Classic, single-cylinder café racer was predecessor to current 650 twins