BIG Built In Garage Café Racer Contest

The evening is, as always, an excellent opportunity to exchange pleasant chats between two-wheel enthusiasts, accompanying it all with a few beers, a hamburger and a competition that makes things more interesting. The headquarters are Motosplash in Milan, more than a motorcycle wash, a meeting place for motorcyclists. This time the Ciapa La Moto association of “Giamba” Panigada managed to line up over 30 motorbikes, all unique pieces, that each interprets the Café Racer concept in its own way. Whose original philosophy was precisely that of taking a motorbike, perhaps old and in need of some work, and turning it upside down, eliminating most of the superstructures and giving it an essential and more bad motorbike look. In decades of history and evolution the Café Racers they changed and multiplied, there are series of them, as the BMW R nine T that accompanied us here, but even looking at the motorcycles in competition it is clear how everyone gives their own free interpretation of the rules to follow to create their own special. Emblematic two BMW K100s, one next to the other, so similar and so different. Both almost completely undressed, one is the result of the work of an enthusiast, the other was created by a workshop specialized in the preparation of sports motorcycles. If initially they might have seemed identical or almost identical, observing them clearly shows how the first is much more artisanal and also how the second has been transformed not only aesthetically, with a completely new chassis. The front end thus becomes decidedly more "racing" than the original, thanks to a one-side-down fork with radial calipers combined with decidedly larger brake discs. This is precisely one of the aspects left to the will of those who carry out the transformation. There is nothing obligatory, or almost nothing. All the bikes have obvious aesthetic changes, only some of which are chassis and mechanical. There are also those who pay more attention to substance, as for a Kawasaki to which a powerful 1.200 engine has been transplanted. Maybe because we are "purists", but we like "built in garage" bikes best, the result of a lot of work and a great passion, necessary to economically realize ideas born with a lot of creativity.

The competition, if you can call it that, was actually a sequence of short presentations of the bikes by those who had brought them, who proudly told us something about their creation. Each motorcycle was positioned in the center of the exhibition space, so that it could be admired and observed. The jury of four experts chose the best, but each bike, in its own way, deserved a prize. There are really so many "goodies", capable of attracting the attention of many enthusiasts present. Lots of applause, some laughter at the wittiest presentations, and a full throttle finale, with the bikes on and the engines on the limiter. The contest saw Nico Dragoni's Yamaha, with a truly noteworthy rear rim, and victorious Massimo Rizzo with his Honda CX500, whose exhaust would probably also win a phonometric challenge!

Once the race is over, the evening continues, between a beer and some live music, with an eye always attentive to the competitors' bikes, but also to some rare pieces present, but not entered in the competition.