First up apologies for talking about yamaha's but bear with me :hammer:
Yamaha imho, has made 2 modern bikes that embody the ideas behind cafe racers.
first up 1 of my fav bike( i should known I've owned 2 of them) the TRX850 made from 1996 to 2000
Power comes from a 849cc parralell twin, water cooled, 5 valves for cylinder, dohc and running 36mm Keihn carbies.
The engine has a 270 degree crank (same as the America) to give it that distinct v-twin or ducati note). A reference furthered by use of a trellis frame.
Relatively understressed engine - with carbon fibre mufflers, k+n filter and some adjustments to carbies - mine makes 76hp at the rear wheel. Big bore kits (878cc), cams and flatslide carbies, exhausts and some headwork ill get you 100hp - like anything big dollars tho.
5 speed gear gearbox, conventional forks with adjustment for preload and rebound, fully adjustable rear shock. Modern brakes with 4 pot calipers front. 160/17 and 120/17 tyres and rims.
Styling was suitably cafe with the half fairing and the cockpit design (could have done with white face gauges tho). Weight was sub 200 kilo.
Very popular bike over here in Oz (won 2 wheels bike of the year in 97) and in japan and europe. For some reason never released in the USA which is a shame, as i think it would have sold well and probably ended up having some competition racing created for it.
Ive uploaded some piccies for the trx850 here - googling for TRX850 will get you plenty of results as its somewhat of a cult bike.
last picture and page 2
A couple of people have asked about my mate's (Dave) bike - yamaha's babycino - SRV250 Renaissa.
Again unfortunately another bike Yamaha chose not to bring into the USA, the SRV250 was basically a virago 250 motor put into a featherbed copy frame. The motor was basically unchanged except that it used 2 carbies instead of 1 and had a little higher compression end result 27hp as opposed
to 21hp i think for the virago. Tyre and rim sizes were 90/90/18 front, 110/90/18 rear. weight about 144kilos
They came out in 2 colours here the original SRV250 with a silver alloy engine and chrome exhaust in either mettalic red or green colours.
Although well received they were expensive for a 250cc bike, costing more than a gpx250 and more than zzr250 from memory.
So the later cut price version the Renaissa was released. Silver alloy and chrome were replaced by black paint on the motor and frame and a single speedo was used instead of the original tacho and speedo. Few other cosmetic changes and the colours were silver or orange.
They were a bit cheaper, but still didnt sell well.
Dave has a later Renaissa model which he has gutted the pipes and done some airbox mods to give it a little more oomph.
you can hear it here -
my go
and here
daves ride
and i put some piccies here
my album page 2
hope you enjoy the read and the piccies.
cheers dave
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