Lady owned Cafe racer bike

Rarely do we see a Filipino couple sharing the same passion for motorcycles, which is why we were thrilled to find out that these sweethearts collaborated to build a café bike.

Cheruby Labrague, a Cebu-based technical writer, owns this Suzuki Thunder 125 that was converted into a classic bike. The build was conceptualized by her boyfriend, Ryan Fil Cortes.

Ryan has great passion for classic motorcycles and he believes the Thunder serves as a good base for a café bike.

“I have a vision that this Thunder will be a very good platform for a cafe racer. I had an idea of how cool it is looking at a lady riding a cafe racer,” said Ryan, who works as an engineer for a telecommunications firm.

“When the boyfriend made the suggestion, I just knew we had to do it,” said Cheruby.

Through the help of their friend, Edwin Jingco, they were able to make some changes with the bike.

They had the chassis shortened and removed the stock seat. They also dismantled the stock tail and lights and replaced them with LEDs. For the bike to look “café”, they installed a custom-made clubman bar and a seat complete with the café racer hump.

challenge, according to Ryan, was finding the right hubs to replace the Thunder’s mag wheels.

“[It was difficult to find the] hubs to be used in converting the mag wheels to spoke and the spacer size to be installed,” he said.

They had the bike painted gray with white racing stripes. It was such a beauty.

“People really appreciate how clean and classy the build looks but what amazed me more was their reaction when they found that the owner is a lady,” said Ryan. “They were really surprised.”

Cheruby remembers buying the Thunder a few years back because of its look.

“I chose the Suzuki Thunder despite its size because it was the best looking bike at that time. I saw it at a Suzuki event here in Cebu and I just fell in love with it. Besides, the quality is superb and the bike is reasonably priced – great value for money,” she said.

Now that it was converted into a “retro” she thinks the bike looks even better.

“I was ecstatic! And I’m very proud of it,” she said while describing her reaction the first time she saw the mods.

“I couldn’t stop looking at it and I couldn’t stop grinning during the test drive. Props to the boyfriend and Sir Edwin, they did a wonderful job and I’m very thankful.”