Thunderous American V-twins and sportbike handling don’t usually go hand-in-hand, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying over the years. Andrew Marsden from Bristol, England is one of those people. He dreamed of riding a V-twin café racer that handled like a race bike and looked incredible—so he built one around a stonking S&S Cycle power train.
“I started thinking about building this bike in 2008 after I finished 17 years of racing on short circuits and the Isle of Man,” says Andy. “I wanted to build a big capacity V-twin in a chassis with nimble handling, but with the look of an older Manx Norton race bike.”
Andy kicked off his S&S Cycle café racer project in a big way—by making the frame himself. Using a borrowed manual tube bender, and a frame jig set to a Ducati 916 wheelbase and head angle, Andy taught himself as he went along. It was a gutsy move, but it paid off.
Those familiar with the Manx Norton will notice how Andy has taken inspiration from the Featherbed frame and applied it here. The curved, tubular frame expertly cradles the engine and gearbox, but has a slightly different geometry from the original.
At this point, Andy’s mate Pete Sutton came on board. Pete has a background in engineering and fabrication, so he dived into aluminum and stainless steel fabrication. Andy specializes in paintwork (he runs Ultimate Bike Paint in Bristol), so he focused on the bike’s aesthetics.
The first incarnation of the bike was finished 12 years ago, but that was just the beginning for Andy and Pete. From there, they spent considerable time testing, refining and improving the bike. Then they decided to take the concept from a one-off special [above] to a made-to-order café racer [below].
“Pete and I are regular visitors to the Manx GP on the Isle of Man,” Andy explains. “On one of these trips we took the newly finished S&S Cycle café racer, and every time we pulled up, the bike was immediately surrounded by a crowd of admiring people.”
“I was often asked if I wanted to sell it, which of course I didn’t. This then turned into the question, ‘Are you building any more?'”
“Such was the interest, that we decided to do just that; Pete and I set up a business solely for this project. The new company is known as Sutton & Marsden Café Racers, and we are planning to build a very limited run to customers’ specs.”
With the original Sutton & Marsden café racer going from testbed to template, Andy and Pete got to work on the new bike. They soon realized that working from a functional example would significantly streamline the project.
Both bikes are powered by the same engine—an S&S Cycle 1,600 cc V-twin with modified and ported S&S Cycle heads. The barrels, cams, and crank are from the American V-twin specialists too, with fuel delivered by a single 45 mm Mikuni carb. The gearbox is from Baker, and the clutch and primary drive components are from Belt Drives Ltd.
The exhaust on the original bike is a stunning two-into-one system with a carbon muffler, while the second bike wears classic twin pipes. They’re slightly bigger than what the guys would have liked, because they were designed to pass England’s strict SVA noise and emission restrictions.
One lesson learned from the first build was working out how to make the wheelbase as short as possible. To achieve this, the guys spent a lot of time trying to get the gearbox right up close to the engine. They eventually succeeded by having a custom billet primary backing plate made for them—but this wasn’t the only hurdle.
During early development, Andy and Pete found out that the power of S&S engines can cause an issue where the primary belt jumps on the pulleys. To overcome this, they devised a system to keep the belt at optimum tension and in contact with the pulleys, regardless of whether the bike is hot or cold. This is just one example of the type of problems that they had to solve, since they weren’t working with off-the-shelf parts.
The bikes share a handmade frame that’s heavily braced around the headstock (and in a few other key areas) to give it the required rigidity. The original bike has Ducati 916 forks with upgraded K-Tech internals, and a custom Nitron rear shock. The single-sided swingarm is also from a Ducati 916, and the wheels are magnesium Marchesinis.
The white bike has a very similar setup, save for a few small differences. Both bikes use a repurposed Ducati front fender.
The first thing that Andy bought for the original project all those years ago was an alloy Manx Norton tank, setting the tone for the rest of the build. The Sutton & Marsden frame has a slightly different design from the original Featherbed, so the tank needed a new tunnel to make it fit. The V1.0 bike features a Manx-style tail section, while V2.0 has a café racer-style carbon fiber seat cowl and leather seat.
The front end is held in place by modified Ducati yokes, with modified Woodcraft clip-ons on the prototype and more traditional handlebar setup on the V2.0 build. Both bikes use Koso clocks, Yamaha headlights, and small windshields to keep the bugs at bay. A smattering of Acccossato, Renthal and Brembo parts round out the spec sheets.
One more stand-out parts sits lower down—a front-mounted oil tank, skillfully made by Pete. This not only keeps the oil cooler, but it also carries the weight low and close to the frame. Pete also made the under-seat battery box, and both bikes feature all-new wiring looms.
“The latest bike is now finished to our specifications and is ready for the new owner—whoever that may be,” Andy says. “The white paintwork is just a prime undercoat with the idea that the new owner can decide on a paint scheme if required. This will be included in the price, and will be painted by me at Ultimate Bike Paint.”
Both bikes are incredibly well-engineered creations that represent countless hours of work from both Pete and Andy. While we love the clean, well-executed lines of the new bike, we can’t help but fall for the original—the wild paint and lived-in aesthetic are just perfect, like a well-worn pair of boots.
Alas, as Andy has confirmed, he’d never sell it. At least Sutton & Marsden Café Racers can build us the next best thing.
Sutton & Marsden Café Racers | Images by, and with thanks to, Del Hickey
