With its roots in the 1960s British counterculture group the Rockers, or the Ton-up boys, a café racer, originally pronounced "caff" (as in Kaff) racer, is a type of motorcycle as well as a type of motorcyclist.
They were also common in Italy, Germany, and other European countries. In Italy, the term refers to the specific motorcycles that were and are used for short, sharp speed trips from one coffee bar to another.
Rockers were a young and rebellious Rock and Roll counterculture that wanted a fast, personalized and distinctive bike to travel between transport cafés like the Ace Cafe on The North Circular road in NW London, along the newly built arterial motorways in and around British towns and cities. The goal of many was to be able to reach 100 miles per hour (called simply "the ton") along such a route where the rider would leave from a cafe, race to a predetermined point and back to the cafe before a single song could play on the jukebox, called record-racing. They are remembered as being fond of Rockabilly music and their image is now embedded in today's rockabilly culture.
The Ace Cafe is an old transport café in London, England. It originally opened sometime in 1938 and was designed to accommodate the commercial traffic travelling on the then new North Circular Road, around London. It became popular with Rockers in the 1950's & 60's and it was a local haunt for the motorcycle petrol heads, the "Rockers". Today it has been refurbished and Rockers and general motorcyclists come from all over the world to gather at the Ace to drink coffee, talk bikes, and see bands etc, as well as to attend the runs, and shows that are frequent there. Check their website at
ace-cafe-london.com/ and the 2007 reunion
kevindean.zenfolio.com/
