Ace Cafe to build café racer

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of its opening, London's Ace Cafe has announced it's going to start building bikes. The aptly titled Ace Cafe Racer will premiere later this year as a special one-off model to be entered in S&S Cycle's 50th anniversary custom contest in June. A limited production run will follow shortly after.

The 100ci S&S v-twin–powered café racer is the product of Ace owner Mark Wilsmore's longtime dream of building his own range of bikes. To do so, he has teamed up with noted English custom builder Nick Gale and Ace investor George Tsuchnikas to found the Stonebridge Motor Company.
The bike itself was inspired by this poster of Lance Weil's custom Harley Davidson that’s hung on Mark’s kitchen wall for the past 20 years.

The Ace Cafe Racer is in the early stages of its build. It's expected that the limited run of 100 production bikes will be ready in late 2008 and will be sold in Europe, Japan and America. Should they prove successful, expect the Stonebridge Motor Company to bring more models to market in the near future.

We're excited by the prospect of a barebones, air-cooled twin café racer inspired by that category's founding minimalist principles. It should be the antithesis of the modern, affected retro bike that chooses a misguided sense of style over speed. We'll be sure to keep you updated as the build progresses.

Ace Cafe Racer