This is part of Vida's shoot for three magazines & a website. For one, she was "Cupid." The others wanted a feature on these two cool cafe racers. The Honda 350 Four "Femme Fatale" was built by Joe Bruton of  Bruton Vintage Motorcycle, and the second, modern interpretation of the cafe racer, by Larry at Garage Company Customs. Stying by Ellie S. Wayman. Thanks also to Byra's Hair Salon, and to B.A. RODZ AND KUSTOMS for the Chevy.

Images of Cafe Racer Bikes & Model, Birmingham Alabama Photographer, for magazines -- --

The Return of the Café Racers! Story & Photos by Jack at AdPix.Biz Model: Davida Styling: Ellie S. Wayman & Byra’s Hair Salon Femme Fatale Bike & Location: Bruton Vintage Motorcycle www.BrutonVintageMotorcycle.com & brown custom Café racer by Garage Company Customs www.GarageCompanyCustoms.com If you’re only a casual biker, a weekend biker, a poseur biker, or not a biker at all, you might think this Honda 350 Four, despite its flat-black customization as Femme Fatale, is not much of a “Killer Ride,” like a Harley, or a Ducati. Nor this neat brown one by Garage Company. It is meaner, but still, not a low-slung laid-back rumbling chopper, nor is it the new “Kill Me Now” Ninjas that look like the rider is folded up in a Leatherman. But think again. Note the angle of the front fork, the “clip-on” handbars, the streamlined tank and rear-mounted seat, and simple taillight. The seating position was low and mean. Instrumentation and any comforts were minimal. They were designed for quick nimble handling, and built simply. They came to be called café racers. These were the European equivalent of American choppers. Both categories of bikes were built by Allied soldiers after the Big One (WWII), when the good guys really beat the bad guys, and there was no doubt about it, back when there were no movies made about how being a good guy could really be bad, and how the bad guys may have been good, and how we’re supposed to apologize for shooting these poor innocent enemies before they shot us. Back then it was clear Good over Evil and the surviving heroes were justifiably proud and heady about it all, if not also quite exhausted and without any money.

So they took whatever was available and raced it. For some, it was Harleys or Indians without any superfluous body work: “choppers.” For 4-wheel folks, it was Old School Skool Rods or Traditional Rods. For Europeans, and in some parts of the US, it was the café racer. They were called that because one big challenge back then was to see who could take their bike from the café where they hung out, to some predetermined point, and back, all within the space of one song on the juke box (this was a really large iPod that had to be plugged in). They also want their bikes to hit 100 mph, called “The Ton.” And they were part of the rockabilly culture. Café racers are very “in,” especially custom ones, like this Ol’ Skool Café by Garage Company, with plumbing petcocks and bronze pegs. And genuine retro ones, like “Femme Fatale” here, built by famed bike restoration expert Joe Bruton of Bruton Vintage Motorcycles. Joe built this first generation 350 Four, which was part of the Honda line reaching to the 750s. The 350 made 4-cylinder bikes available to anyone. Honda knew that 750s were a bit too big for some riders. This bike is light and nimble, and mimicked many of the features that bikers were seeing in F1 bike racing. They really didn’t need to be hot-rodded because they were already much more performance-oriented than what was available then. Its 4-into-4 exhaust came stock, and although it technically red-lines at 10,000 rpm, owners knew they could turn it to 12,000 with a little motor work. That was double the rpm that any other bike could do. So it was lively and tough, with a great personality and sound, just perfect for beating the juke box!