Observing the renewed interest in café racers at the Ace Café was pretty easy for Nick Gale as his bike shop, Nick Gale Custom Cycles, is a short walk from the Ace. It probably shouldn’t come as a big surprise that his entry for the S&S 50th Anniversary Show just might have a café flavor to it, but this is definitely a walk on the wild side compared to his usual fare. “ When we were asked to build a bike for the S&S show, my feeling was that café racers were coming back into fashion,” said Nick. “I’m a ¼-mile from the Ace Café and friendly with the two main directors, so I thought if I’m going to build a bike for the competition, I wanted to build something a little bit different so I don’t necessarily get compared to everybody else.” Nick generally does pretty far-out builds in the more traditional custom sense, so he formed a new company with Ace Café under the NGCC umbrella called Stonebridge Motor Company. “I didn’t want to confuse my company’s style of the chops and the lowriders with this style of bike,” said Nick.

The design process began with an artist’s rendering, but like all things custom, the drawing was only a starting point. “The design of the bike was originally going to be a bit more traditional and I found that to be a little bit boring,” said Nick. So I sat down one night and thought to myself, ‘If I’m going to build a bike, what do I do?’ The answer was if the guys in the ‘50s and ‘60s had a time machine and could come to today and buy all the parts they need for their bikes, what would they use? I decided to build it as an ultra-modern version using traditional styling and that’s where we ended up.”

If you’re building a café bike, you gotta use or replicate a Norton Featherbed-style frame. Nick’s version is a bit wider than stock to accommodate the Sportster engine and with 29-degrees of rake, it was sure to be a serious corner-carver. Aiding and abetting that frame’s inherent goodness is premium Ohlins suspension fore and aft. The twin retro-style rear shocks look snazzy with their piggyback reservoirs and compliment the Ohlins forks, well known for their surgical handling sensibilities. Chunk-o-metal Harris Performance triple-trees eliminate any possibility of fork flex while adding a touch of understated race style. Radial-mounted Harrison billet brakes, front and rear, provide MotoGP-style braking when necessary. The only concession to traditional customs (other than the pushrod V-twin) is the use of Ride Wright’s beefy 50-spoke Fat Daddy wheels instead of some delicate-looking European stuff. The all-black wheels disappear into the design, though, and provide a strong platform for the Metzeler Marathons to do their thing. Nick chose a quick handling 160mm out back in total deference to current custom trends and the bike looks better for it too.

Nick’s build was based around S&S’ 100” Sportster engine which has a drag racing background that gives it plenty of oomph in stock form, but in true English cottage industry heritage, he couldn’t leave well enough alone. Internally it’s pretty stock, but changes made to the intake and exhaust livened things up a wee bit. “It pulled 138hp and 110ft-lbs of torque on its second-ever dyno run,” said Nick. Originally there was going to be a traditional reverse-cone megaphone exhaust, but Nick nixed that. “I thought that was really boring. This bike is cutting edge, so I spoke to a guy who makes MotoGP exhausts with a power-valve system inside the exhaust,” said Nick. “We coupled that with an Intek valve that sits in the air box and adjusts airflow. It irons out all the glitches four-stroke engines have. It gives 20% more power and 1500 more revs, better throttle response, and the best part — it runs 80% greener than stock.” Besides looking asymmetrically cool, the sound is unlike any 45-degree V-twin. Combine a Norton and a bevel-drive Ducati and you’re close. Google Ace Café Racer and watch the YouTube dyno-run videos. The sound is yummy.

Nick planned to use a Performance Machine hydraulic clutch with the BAKER 6-speed XL tranny like he had seen on a Roland Sand’s custom and modified his engine accordingly. Unfortunately, Nick found out it was a one-off unavailable piece and had to expertly cobble together his own clutch from pieces he found at a motorcycle jumble (swap meet).”I used a piston from a CB400, some big twin parts, and machined the housing on a 35-year-old milling machine. It took us three weeks to make,” said Nick. “That’s how the bike went. Every single part was handmade.” His favorite part is the reversed S&S air cleaner. “My brief with this bike was to make it look like it was doing 200mph standing still,” said Nick. “I think it looks fantastic!”

The aluminum Manx-style tank, made from “lots of hand-rolled and hand-cut pieces then gas welded together,” is a work of art by itself. Luckily, it’s not by itself as the aluminum seat with twin inset taillights only adds to the raw metal artwork. A simple gold S&S 50th logo by Khamelion Customs adorns the tank as the only nod to graphics on this bike and ties in nicely with the gold-anodized Ohlins. The huge drag-bike tach perfectly mimics a Vincent speedo and the chromed Lucas headlight only adds to the period look. “I was hoping not to piss anybody off with the modern styling, but everybody seems to go for it,” said Nick. “At only 440 pounds, it’s very quick and this thing handles.” Overall, the Ace Café Racer just nails it with deliciously correct-style, rideable extreme performance, and uncountable details. Well done Nick.

This bike feature originally appeared in Barnett’s Magazine issue #65, November 2008.