Building a café racer always starts with a passion and a plan. Oscar Axhede from Sweden had a plan to build his own café racer and bought a CB750. But after a while he could not give this bike the styling he was looking for. So he sold the CB750 and bought the younger brother: a Honda CB650 from 1980. This is the result of a 2 year project and he called it “Leatherhead”.
He was looking for a design where “cold” steel and aluminum would meet high quality leather. So for that Oscar bought a whole deerskin which he could use to create that look he was looking for. It’s obvious where the name of this CB650 café racer came from.
The rear seat was one of the biggest challenges for Oscar and it took him 3 tries to get the result he wanted. His goal was to create a seat that was one with the frame.
Another masterpiece are the rear sets. All functions from lever, springs and switches are combined in one clean and fresh design. The rear sets even cover footpegs for a passenger.
The deerskin was big enough to create all kinds of leather details on the bike. He even covered the front forks and levers with it.
The bike is fully restored and rebuilt with a lot of custom and aftermarket parts. For the a clean look he uses a beautiful CNC triple tree.
A brief summary from Oscar:
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours spent in the garage. Countless nights and weekends trying to figure out how to design this or how to solve that. Milling, painting, electricity, carburetors, cables, bolts and screws. What started two years ago as an idea to build something quickly, instead became a bit of an obsession but now it’s finally over and it rides like a charm! So damn proud of what came out of my garage after all this work. And more than anything, sooo stoked to leave it behind me so I can make room for a new project in my life. Pretty sure it won’t be a motorcycle : )
Well, I hope Oscar changes his mind…
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Building a café racer always starts with a passion and a plan. Oscar Axhede from Sweden had a plan to build his own café racer and bought a CB750. But after a while he could not give this bike the styling he was looking for. So he sold the CB750 and bought the younger brother: a Honda CB650 from 1980. This is the result of a 2 year project and he called it “Leatherhead”.
He was looking for a design where “cold” steel and aluminum would meet high quality leather. So for that Oscar bought a whole deerskin which he could use to create that look he was looking for. It’s obvious where the name of this CB650 café racer came from.
The rear seat was one of the biggest challenges for Oscar and it took him 3 tries to get the result he wanted. His goal was to create a seat that was one with the frame.
Another masterpiece are the rear sets. All functions from lever, springs and switches are combined in one clean and fresh design. The rear sets even cover footpegs for a passenger.
The deerskin was big enough to create all kinds of leather details on the bike. He even covered the front forks and levers with it.
The bike is fully restored and rebuilt with a lot of custom and aftermarket parts. For the a clean look he uses a beautiful CNC triple tree.
A brief summary from Oscar:
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours spent in the garage. Countless nights and weekends trying to figure out how to design this or how to solve that. Milling, painting, electricity, carburetors, cables, bolts and screws. What started two years ago as an idea to build something quickly, instead became a bit of an obsession but now it’s finally over and it rides like a charm! So damn proud of what came out of my garage after all this work. And more than anything, sooo stoked to leave it behind me so I can make room for a new project in my life. Pretty sure it won’t be a motorcycle : )
Well, I hope Oscar changes his mind…
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
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About the Author: Ron Betist
