A Real Cafe Racer
In the late 50’s, before the mods, rockers and hell’s angels, the bike scene revolved around the various cafés and the coffee bar racers. John Horton shares some of his memories of what turned out to be the last era of British bike domination. bought my first bike, a Beezer (BSA) Bantam which I later traded for a 1954 spring hub, coil ignition Triumph Thunderbird, becoming in the process a Coffee Bar Racer.
Most of my mates had Norton Dominators, Velocettes, Gold Stars, Trophys, T110s, Bonnevilles and even a Road Rocket. Everyone met regularly at the biker cafés across the south. The main ones were Johnson’s (Johno’s), Salt Box, Nightingales, Anne’s Pantry, Secluded at Beckenham and Bicks at Bromley. Most of these are long gone, with the few survivors being Ryker’s at Box Hill, The Oakdene and of course the Ace.
The Sidcup by-pass was a popular road for the obligatory burn-up, now sadly limited to 40mph and controlled by speed cameras. Sunbeam Alpines, Austin Healeys and Daimler Darts were some of the cars we were up against. The police were better equipped with Jaguar XK 120’s and 150’s.
Coastal towns were the most popular destinations, with Brighton being a firm favourite. We used to meet up on sundays in all seasons, head for the coast and meet at the Penny Farthing at Brighton.
Some weekends I would head for a little village called Blaxhall near Alborough in Suffolk, where a friend had a cottage.
Music was a big part of the biking lifestyle with the juke boxes blasting out skiffle and rock’n’roll. Elvis, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Preston, the Platters and the Everley Brothers were hugely popular but my preference was a straight ballad operetta singer named David Whitfield, Britain’s answer to Mario Lanza.The records were a background to the frantic games of table football that were played in most cafés.
We were paid weekly in those days, the priorities were enough money for petrol, a cup of tea and a packet of cigarettes.Friday night was Johnson’s night, I remember one biker called Soapy, he worked on a pig farm and smelt like it, friendly chap though! The bikes themselves were very crude compared to today’s high tech machines. The hot singles often dropped valves, were hard to start and kick you back if you didn’t get the compression right. Wherever you parked them they left a trademark pool of oil.Two strokes were very smokey and burned a lot of oil.
One of the better machines was a Norton feather bed frame with a Triumph engine, these actually held the road quite well.When I first viewed a bike called a Honda Dream, I thought it looked like a pagoda on wheels with a typical oriental shape...I didn’t like it!! Even worse was the sound of it. When the Honda CB750 arrived, this proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the British motorcycle industry. Over the next few years, most ceased production.
In later years I worked in London, travelling most days and in all weathers, often nearly dropping the bike in the ice and snow, particularly at the Dulwich tollgate. The night before the hurricane of 1987 I was on the bike and the wind was getting a bit lively! I had a CX500 at the time.
Both my sons are bikers, it must be in the genes, I am in my late 60’s, still riding and enjoying it. These days I have a 125 Yamaha Enticer, it looks like a poor man’s Harley and is nicknamed “the batmobile”. Slightly different from my old Bantam days but I still love it and enjoy the comradeship of other motorcyclists.