Cafe Racers

The Cafe Racer motorcycle style started in early 1960’s London with an emphasis on lightweight motorcycles optimized for speed and handling. The distinctive style, based on early GP road racing bikes, generally featured low-mounted handlebars, swept-back pipes, and rear-set footpegs.

By the mid-1970’s, the Honda SOHC/4 engines had gained popularity as the power plant to a wide range of custom and manufactured cafe bikes. There are many sites which cover these bikes in great detail, this page is here as a reference to the SOHC/4 cafe bikes.

The Satanic Mechanic

Any mention of the SOHC/4 cafe bikes needs to start with the Satanic Mechanic. Axl Griessman, who tragically left us in 2009, started compiling a website covering all of the known sports and racing frames which were made for the CB750 engine. On his site, you will find detailed information on the following manufacturers.


Bakker	Bimota	Chatelard	Cordier	Corki	Curtis	Dholda	Dresda	Eckert	Egli
EML	Foale	Guedon	Harris	Janton	Japauto	Martin	North	P&M	PEM
Rau	Rickman	Seeley	Segoni	Speiss	Von Ow	Walther	Zabrocky	Zerchot	UFOs

In addition to a reference guide to this group of frame makers, the Satanic Mechanic site has a wealth of technical information focused on performance modifications which can be made to the SOHC/4 CB750 engine.

BikeBros

Bike Bros is a web publication from Japan. These are a just a few of the great SOHC/4 articles on the website.


1976 Bimota Honda HB1
Honda CR750
Again CB400Four

SOHC/4 Cafe Bikes

There are a number of SOHC/4 owners who own custom and manufactured SOHC/4 based cafe bikes and have graciously provided photos. If you have questions on any of these, look up the member on our forums.

ANDY SMITH’S (WESTFIELDANDY) SEELEY CB750

SAM GREEN CR750 SANTA POD RACEWAY ON 17TH SEPTEMBER 2006

Dresda 900

This bike was built by Dave Degens in 1976. Proud owner: Eamon Maloney (UKCB750CAFERACERS)

Dresda CB500-4

North weald (UK) Classic Bike Drag Meet 17th July 2006 Spotted this excellent Dresda at the North Weald Classic Bike Show on Sunday. Spoke to the owner who has had it since 1986. It’s an early Dresda frame (numbered in the high 100′s) with a K2 500/4 engine (CB500E-21xxxxx), Alpha exhaust, Dymag wheels and Lockheed brakes. Some serious engineering by the owner. His 1/4 mile drag times were not so good due to a bit of bogging at take off so he didn’t bother recording them. Maybe next time…

Picture shows Eamon Maloney (UKCB750CAFERACERS) pondering the engineering while Jim Shea holds his orange drink!