Preview: Season 4 Episode 4

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This week’s episode is going to be talked about for a long time.

First up, we feature an old school café racer build by Trenton, New Jersey’s Cycle Icons, a shop determined to create a record-breaking speed machine from an ordinary Royal Enfield commuter bike. Trenton, we learned during the shoot, is the home of Shadetree Manufacturing and Cycle Icons stick to the region’s traditions, using blood, sweat and gears to make it all happen.

What this team manages to do to their trusty little 500cc single may surprise some folks, proving that bigger is not always better.

Clearly thinking outside any box whatsoever is MaceTech Industries, a Florida shop run by Mace Livingston and his wife, Ashlie, who is also pin-up pretty. This husband wife build blends KTM adventure bike power with, well, let’s just say their take on the café racer is anything but traditional, involving everything from snakeskin to firearms parts. And if you were ever thinking of building a bike with your spouse this could be a good episode for you to watch before you head down that road.

Hall of fame off-road rider Jack Penton pays Café Racer TV a visit as well, lending his formidable skills as a professional motorcycle developer to the ambitious MaceTech project. For Livingston, the young builder learns a valuable lesson in the end.

– Mike Seate

The Badger is going racing in episode #4, which airs Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 10 pm on Velocity

The Badger is going racing in episode #4, which airs Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 10 pm on Velocity

Preview: Season 4 Episode 3

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Some truly funky and fresh ideas from a couple of the industry’s top young custom builders is the focus of this week’s show, starting with former AMA 250 Grand Prix champ Roland Sands.

Sands, whose Roland Sands Design studio has produced all sorts of mind bending machines including the prototype for BMW’s first ever retro café bike the R Nine T. For Café Racer TV, Sands and his talented team will strip a modern, but beaten and battered, Harley Sportster into a street tracker for professional skateboarder Lyn-z Adams Hawkins Pastrana. Parts fly when Lyn-z brings along her husband, action sports legend Travis Pastrana, who implements two tools in the teardown: a hammer and a Sawzall.

The Sands/Pastrana story finishes in the very place where this bike’s first life ended, the desert, where Travis does something he’s never done before.

Funny story about meeting Sands for the first time: It was back in 2002 and we were chilling at West Coast Choppers during their annual No Love Ride rally when I struck up a conversation with a young fella about superbike racing. After bragging about how “fast” I thought I was on a track I asked the dude what he did for a living.

“I won the 250 AMA class in 1998,” he said matter-of-factly. Foot firmly sandwiched in mouth, I realized that I was speaking with Sands himself. Ah, nothing like an awkward moment to impress people…

And speaking of impressive, this week you’ll see Tony Prust of Analog Motorcycles tackle a rare – and some would say pug-ugly – Bimota Mantra from Italy and change it into the sort of machine that draws stares for all the right reasons.

The Mantra was one of the strangest street bikes ever devised, combining a wood-paneled dashboard with a Ducati Supersport engine in a styling package that looks like the original Batmobile on acid.

Before he was building show winning café racers, Tony spent his days as a drum tech for alt-rock band Chevelle; the band’s drummer, Sam Loeffler owns the Bimota that Tony’s transforming, and he’s expecting nothing less than perfection from his new ride. And if you’re a fan of Chevelle, dig it the most as we join the band for a hangout on the road during a recent tour.

– Mike Seate

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What $500 and Elbow Grease Gets You

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Gerry Granduke of Cold Hearted Custom Cycles made an appearance in last night’s episode when we visited the Oley, PA swap meet and asked the attendees what they could do get for $500 or $1000.

Granduke has done a lot with $500 projects many times in his career and here’s a link to the story behind the bike he discussed in episode number 2.

Troubled Past

CONTEST: “Wanna Be Like Mike”

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You probably didn’t expect to be asked to do homework while watching season 4 of “Cafe Racer” TV but that’s pretty much what we’re asking you to do.

The good news is that correct answers come with free stuff!

We will keep this simple. Our coordinating producer, and the editor of Cafe Racer Magazine, Mike Seate knows bikes. He doesn’t always agree with every decision builders make on our show but he respects what they do 100%. Mike is going to make a lot of comments during season four’s run and your job is to remember and regurgitate!

To win a prize pack, watch Cafe Racer TV, pay attention and answer our question below. The first 10 people to do so will win a season 3 DVD set and Cafe Racer TV stickers. Mike is going to throw in a one year subscription to Cafe Racer Magazine, a patch, and a CRM badge.

Episode One’s Question: What specific kind of engineering did Mike say that Grey Dog Moto used to create their Moto Guzzi cafe racer for Olaf Hoff?

Answer the question through our comments section. We will contact you via e-mail if you were one of the winners. Good luck!

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And…. We’re Back!

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It’s been a while since we revved up Café Racer TV but we believe you’ll find the payoff well worth the wait. Season 4 returns to Velocity on Wednesday, November 6 at 10 pm EST and then repeats at 1 am EST on Nov. 7.

First up, a new one hour format provides the gearheads among us with far more in-depth, detailed coverage of each custom motorcycle build.

We’re talking about hands-on nuts and bolts footage of these high-performance bikes from their earliest stages until they’re finished, fueled and ready for a Boz Brothers test ride.

In episode one, two complete café racers will be built and ridden, the first emerging from Classified Moto’s Richmond, VA garage. Their decision to transform a muddy old Honda dual-sport bike into a café racer for actress Katee Sackhoff has to be one of the oddest–and most inspiring–builds to appear on Café Racer TV.

Also twisting the throttle this week is Bay Area custom shop Grey Dog Moto. Patrick Bell has the rare ability to see a sleek, fast ton-up machine hiding deep within a bulky Moto Guzzi California cruiser.

Later, you’ll feel like part of the pack as we join test rider Blake Kelly and comedian Alonzo Bodden to ride the legendary canyons of California in the first of our Great Roads series. You may think you’ve seen twisty roads but Mulholland Highway, high in the Santa Monica Mountains, will have your front wheel pointing westward for a piece of the action. Strap on your helmets and climb aboard – this is going to be a blast!

Mike Seate
Editor, Café Racer Magazine
Coordinating Producer, Café Racer TV

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