Continued....

Like many foreign nationals living in the U.S., expatriated Frenchman Alain Bernard has a deep love for American culture. His appreciation of everything from carhops to early rock-and-roll music and hot rod cars is reflected in the motorcycles he designs and builds. And while Alains previous designs included a mind-blowing rockabilly-theme bobber with Gretsch quitar parts on the bodywork and a cool Stray Cats logo on the primary cove, his most recent creation is so wat out, it caught us off guard.

"I have always liked British bikes and I've wanted to do something different for a long time with a custom V-twin. Doing an old Triumph or Norton would have been easy, but since I like the Norton Featherbed frame very much, I looked at it for a very long time and came up with my own cafe racer frame," said Alain. The frame that lends the latest Santiago creation a race-ready stance was created in two weeks using a set of custom jigs. It features a steep, 24-degree rake for quick steering and directions changes while its custom motor mounts accomodate Big Twin motors such as Panhead Outlaw 120 cubic incher from Accurate Engineering that's installed in this prototype. Thse whopping cubes are helped along by a 6-speed transmission that shifts gears via set of rearest footrests culled from a suzuki GSX-R.

The bare frame is available to the customers for $2,495.00 and accepts a variety of front ends and wheels, though Alains creative bent and penchant for using found parts contributed to the exotic, international pedigree of this one, dubbed cafe 1958. The seat and classic full sleeved shocks hail from the Italian-built Benelli 350, while the fork is from a Harley Davidson Sportster. Custom revers megaphone mufflers and bar-mounted rear-view mirrors smaller than the one in my wife's make up case complete the "speed thrills" look of this machine.

The sure-stopping front brake originally grabbed a rotor aboard a Honda CR450 dirtbike, while the gas tank is a triumph item from the late 1960's. That's when the motorcycle riders popularized the bum-up, head down riding position, and Alain seems to think that it;s just a matter of time be-fore that riding style becomes popular again. "we're exploring all sorts of options with this frame, from Yamaha engines to RevTech, to see what goes faster. That's what cafe bikes were all about, " he said. And if what goes around comes around is true, expect to see more bikes like Alain's on the road. -Mike Seate