Vintage motorcycling is a disease. We are addicts and even unemployment can’t staunch our cravings and impulsive endeavors. We spend hours pouring over Ebay and on motorcycle forums for parts and ideas of how to better our creations.

I enjoy the street-tracker look and I can appreciate some choppers and bobbers, but my first love was and continues to be the café racer. It’s gained popularity over the past few years and for a good reason; function and form tied together in one perfect motorcycle.

One of the things that is so great about bike building is it is not just a mechanical job, but it is a true artistic undertaking. No one café bike is like the other.

I was going to go on a 24hour round trip mad dash to pick up a 1974 Yamaha RD350 and see a cluster of old friends along the way, but it worked out better (read: more economically) to have the bike shipped to me.

I am looking forward to getting my new-to-me bike in the garage. In my imagination, I’ve already fit the bike with four or five different seat configurations, clip-ons, chambered pipes and a few other modifications. It’s a new project, something to contemplate in the garage on sleepless nights and tinker with during the long, hot days. Hopefully soon, it will cease to be just another RD, and will become a work of art…that I will take on the race track.