Dear Motormouse,

Spring is in the air. This is not only when you look at nature, but also shows from the increasing numbers of visitors to our showroom. More and more motor friends are now buying the last parts to perfect their motorcycles for this coming season. Or they buy the motorcycle they wanted for awhile now it is still available.

This was also noticeable in conversations at the successful meeting for classic Enduro motorcycles at TMC on March 3rd.

Of course, we made note of that and have already adjusted our supplies. We already have a large supply of Davida helmets, for example.

The next happening will be on Saturday March 16th. We will hold our CAFE-RACER-DAY. More about that in our newsletter.

For the MOTORCYCLE TEAM,

Harm and Robert

1. Contents.

Originally, a café-racer is the name for the building style among English owners of street motorcycles, who were inspired, from the late 50's, by the exterior design of motorcycles like the Norton Manx or the BSA Goldstar. In this way they hoped to transform the rather dull looks of

most of the (bread and butter) motorcycles produced in the 50's for a new goal.

It was the era of a new "leisure time" culture, of course with Rock 'N Roll, but also with hanging out at the pubs and café's along side the main streets of the big cities. The café-racing scene became a culture in its own, with regular hang outs, its own fashion, albums and even movies.

If you were young you had little money but all the more dreams. With a little bit of imagination, any bike (in the eyes of the owner) could be turned into a "look alike" racer, using clip-ons, separately mounted gauges, bent up exhaust pipes, long race tanks and single seats, exposed front and rear springs.

The then newly imported Italian motorcycles, which were already much more stylish and sportive will also have had their influence. Some owners even went as far as to add parts of different makes to construct their own highly individual motorcycle. That this didn't always turn out to be for the better, be it technically or esthetically , when compared to the original, may be obvious.

Soon people like Paul Dunstall (Norton), Dave Degens (Triumph) and the brothers Rickman offered themselves for tuning, as supplier of special parts or for supplying complete frame kits.

The traditional motorcycle industry started to cater for this demand during

the 60's, when more and more typical trademarks of the café-racers were being added to the design of the standard motorcycles. Finally, by the end of the 60's, this resulted in the sale of "over the counter" café-racers, like the BSA A65 Spitfire (ca. 1966), Norton Commando Norvil (ca. 1971), the Ducati 750 Sport (1972), the Moto Morini 350 Sport (1974) or the Harley Davidson 1000 XLCR Café-racer (1977).

Café-racers never were limited to England in their classic era ); this shows from the beautiful Egli-Vincent specials from Switzerland. The current phenomenon of 'streetfighter' (also created in England) could be considered as a modern continuation in the spirit of the café- tradition.

What do we offer you on March 16th.? First of all the Dutch Road Rocket Caferacer club will be our guest. They will have their own club stand and will supply some extra " ambience". If you have not had the pleasure of meeting this enthusiastic company, they now have their own web site which is very worth while visiting. http://www.roadrocketclub.nl

Of course you can also get great ideas at this day about what kind of motorcycle we can help you to get. You can ask us for advice or information. Finally we will show you that one café-racer says more then a thousand words alone. We can tell you here that we will not be limited to only one on this day!!

EXPECTED: - BSA DBD 34 Goldstar Clubmans (1957) - BSA DBD 34 Absaf Goldstar engine in Rickman cycle parts (1999) - Triton with 650 Triumph engine in slim line Norton Featherbed frame (2001) - Norton café-racer with 650 SS block in wide line Featherbed frame (2000) - Dunstall Norton 750 Atlas café-racer (1966, not restored, very special) - Rickman Triumph Trident (1974, very nice and not restored) Next to all these, the 70's and the Italian contingent will also be represented : - Harley Davidson XLCR 1000 Café-racer (1977) - Ducati 750 Sport (1974) - Moto Guzzi 1000 SP café-racer (2002) - Moto Guzzi Le Mans 2 1000 cc. Special (2002) - Ducati 860 GT café-racer (1999)

About all the other ones, well, come and see. Of course we hope to see you there, with your own beautiful motorcycles. For further ambience, we will make sure there will be a snack and something to drink for all. You are very welcome!

From our broad supply of classic motorcycles we want to single out two TRIUMPHs that have become available recently. They are both from 1938, connoisseurs know that this is a very rare year. They both have single cilinder engines, of which one is a 250 cc and the other a 350 cc. Both have been spectacularly restored

A new batch of DAVIDA helmets has just arrived. They are now available in great supply. You can now make your choice out of an even bigger selection of models and sizes.

CONSIGNMENT SALES: If you wish to sell a motorcycle (one which will fit within our philosophy of a quality classic ), we can place this motorcycle in our showroom and also offer for sale through our web site.. This increases your possibilities for a successful sale and can save you a lot of time and trouble.

SEARCH ORDERS: We regularly have been able to help find motorcycles for our customers. If you would like to own a certain motorcycle and need some help finding it, please let us know. Possibly, we know where you could buy it, or maybe already offer it for sale.

Feel free to ask about our (friendly!) terms of these services.

When updating our database, we noticed that several of our readers were in our system with two email addresses. To prevent too many emails (and annoyance), could you please tell us at which address you prefer to get the newsletter sent? We will make sure it will be updated immediately.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY FROM 10 AM UNTIL 6 PM. AND SATURDAY FROM 10 AM UNTIL 5 PM.

PLEASE NOTE, WE ARE CLOSED ON SUNDAY, MONDAY AND TUESDAY.

AS YOU KNOW, THE COFFEE IS FREE AND ALWAYS FRESH!

http://www.themotorcyclecompany.net info

HH