Café Racer 1: The Rear

The rear-end of the standard Racer has a lot of potential for improvement. The homologated back end, with the large plastic piece holding the light, number plate and indicators masks a compact sexy rear which, with the right parts, can be made street legal but far shorter and more purposeful. For this job I opted for a rear piece produced by AC Schnitzer (in Aachen, Germany). The part does not seem to be available in South Africa, so I flew it in (I am still investigating local solutions, as this is quite a pricy exercise – watch this space). This includes a tiny LED taillight and number plate holder, which I like as I think the number plate belongs in the center of the bike. I coupled this with Rizoma miniature indicators, which I also flew in from Germany (since then I have discovered that there is a local agent, so you can get the parts locally). This was the first re-building step, as the custom exhaust needed to be built with these components in mind.