Colorful cafe racer thread

Marc mndt said:

70s Shields racing shirt size 42

It's a rather odd jacket, not one of my favorites tbh. It features shoulder padding, side buckles and a triangular shaped back panel. The placement of the chest pockets relative to center zipper looks weird. Compared to the size 36 (the one with stars), they simply moved the pockets outwards without changing the width of the pockets themselves. Size 42 has the same sleeve and body length as size 36. The whole ensemble looks a bit out of proportion imo.
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yellowfever said:

Interesting jacket, Actually I like it. I love the colour especially, I need an all blue jacket in my life! Though I agree with you that the pocket placement is a bit weird, they should be closer to the centreline. On the back design, it’s like a more extreme version of typical 1970’s British bike jackets. UK jackets often had a not full width centre panel that tapered a little towards the hem (eg see my yellow Speedman jacket above - this design was common from a variety of UK manufacturers at the time). Your Shields jacket takes this further with a more pronounced taper to give a more obvious triangular shaped panel. But personally I think this helps give your back a nice triangular look and off-sets the otherwise slightly straight up and down look to the jacket (if I had a criticism of the styling, IMO it is that it could do with a little bit more taper to the waist as it looks a bit too boxy at least on you given you’re of trim build).

The buckle placement is interesting. UK jackets of the era often had low set side buckles to adjust the fit and seal the jacket hem from drafts for riding and also help stop the jacket riding up in a crash. A belt was not used as the front mounted buckle of a belt would scratch the tank when bent over in riding stance. Your jacket has side buckles but higher set at a natural waist level, more like on a casual highwayman style half belt jacket. Maybe better for obtaining a more flattering casual fit (if you have the waist for it as you do - maybe cinching them more would give you a better less boxy silhouette?) but less useful from a biking perspective?

On fit, I think it’s nigh-on perfect for real world casual wear. It’s maybe a tiny bit bigger through the body than strictly correct given this style is meant to be very close fitting over a t shirt for on bike use. On you this jacket is just the right side of that very close fit, to be trim but still give a little breathing room for casual (rather than on bike) wear. The sleeves are perfect and I love the extra long wrist zips and the padded elbows. The jacket length also looks good to me and similar to UK jackets of the era - ie a bit longer than typical USA jackets front and back. Being hyper critical maybe a little more taper to the waist would work for you, but as it is it looks like it should allow a bit of thin layering so be wearable over more of the year? And maybe cinching those high set buckles a bit more could help too? IMO having a bit of a taper through the waist can also help make the longer length work too.

Here’s a photo of me wearing a very beaten up 1980s made to measure UK jacket from a serious bike leathers maker favoured by many club racers at the time. It has the longer UK length (it’s the longest short jacket I own) plus some waist taper sewn in (no buckles) which personally I think looks flattering (it was a second hand pick up that serendipitously fit me well).

Anyway, great thread and I think you should enjoy that blue beauty more, it’s a great look on you.

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Marc mndt said:

70s Shields racing shirt size 42

It's a rather odd jacket, not one of my favorites tbh. It features shoulder padding, side buckles and a triangular shaped back panel. The placement of the chest pockets relative to center zipper looks weird. Compared to the size 36 (the one with stars), they simply moved the pockets outwards without changing the width of the pockets themselves. Size 42 has the same sleeve and body length as size 36. The whole ensemble looks a bit out of proportion imo.
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yellowfever said:

It’s actually meant to be a (not perfect) copy of the ‘Fast’ Freddie Spencer design leathers, though Wayne Gardner was his teammate at Rothmans Honda at one stage and they had very similar designed leathers, so could be either I guess.

The sew on patch sponsor/advertising badges are long gone, so it’s an even more approximate replica these days. Apart from the stitch holes from the patches it has several crash scars, so it has a ton of character (or it’s wrecked depending on your point of view) and no outside pockets as per serious bike leathers. It fits me well, trim like bike leathers are meant to, so I like it even if wearing a Honda jacket is considered ‘cross-dressing’ for a Ducati rider like myself

I think you’re maybe thinking of the famous Suzuka 8 hour endurance race which had a sort of ‘le mans’ style running starts! Crazy stuff. Especially as the bikes in that era were notoriously evil to ride with no modern traction control aids, body armour was still developing and track safety was variable, so plenty of the racers were carrying injuries from the regular big crashes. Running/limping on busted up legs was nothing to these lunatics/hero’s before jumping on and riding away like they’d stolen the bike… madness! But impressive madness…

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Marc mndt said:

Adding a couple of updated pics of the luda clothing cafe racer to this thread

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Gamma68 said:

I’m not familiar with Luda. Do you know much about this brand?

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Monitor said:

I have a colorful cafe racer too! Well, mandarin collared jacket. But it's colorful! And super cool!

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Daniel Veit said:

British Cycle Leather.
Lightweight, colourful, fun to wear. What's not to like? View attachment 597921 View attachment 597922

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