Brat Style Motorcycles: What They Are and How They Differ From Cafe Racers and Trackers

A brat style motorcycle is a stripped-down custom with a flat seat, a sprung rear end, a low stance and simple, fairly upright bars. The name comes from the Brat Style shop in Tokyo, run by Go Takamine, and the look spread until "bratstyle" became a generic term. This page covers where it came from, the parts that define it, and how it differs from a cafe racer, a street tracker, a scrambler and a bobber.

Part of our cafe racer motorcycles hub.

Key takeaways- The seat is the clearest sign: a flat slab long enough for two, or a solo seat lowered with mild frame changes.- Bars are mini-apes, superbike or motocross bars, not clip-ons.- It comes from one Tokyo shop, not from British or American racing.- No standards body defines these labels, so this page uses Bikebound's working definition and says where it is only one view.

What is a brat style motorcycle?

Bikebound's working definition is the most specific we found, so we use it here. It is one writer's definition, not a formal one, and builders disagree at the edges.

Where brat style came from

Bikebound traces the term to one shop: Brat Style in Tokyo, run by Go Takamine. The Bike Shed reports that it began as a small shop in Ueno, so cramped that a compact car could not fit inside, and outgrew its space four times before settling downtown.

Takamine grew up on Okinawa and is a vintage flat-track racer as well as a builder. He describes the name as suggesting youth and freedom, "freewheeling". Early builds were based on Yamaha XS650 and SR400 bikes and older Harley Sportsters.

In 2014 Takamine and his wife Masumi moved to Long Beach, California, to open a second location. He says he found his Japanese bikes too cheap and low-budget for American tastes after the move.

We could not find a dated, primary source for when the style began, so this page gives no year.

Brat, cafe racer, tracker, scrambler and bobber compared

The bars and seat do most of the sorting. A cafe racer keeps low clip-ons or ace bars and a racing seat, while the brat definition excludes clip-ons. For the cafe racer in full, see what a cafe racer motorcycle is.

A street tracker is a road-legal bike modeled on dirt-track racers, descended from AMA Grand National racers of the 1960s and 70s. It typically has wide bars, a small tank that tapers into a narrow seat, a minimal rear fender and 19-inch wheels at both ends. Flat-track racing itself began in the United States before World War I.

Early scramblers dropped lights and fenders, ran a smaller tank and a padded single seat, and used knobbed tires. The scrambler page covers that style in depth: what a scrambler motorcycle is.

A bobber is stripped for simplicity and less weight, usually on an unmodified frame. See what a bobber motorcycle is.

Where the lines blur

The same donor bikes show up in several styles. Brat builds started on Yamaha XS650 and SR400 bikes and older Sportsters. Street trackers commonly start on the Yamaha XS650, Triumph T100 and Harley-Davidson Sportster. What changes is the seat, the bars and the tires.

Bikebound says a brat with motocross-style bars and knobby tires leans toward a "brat tracker". That is a reminder that these are overlapping labels, not sealed categories. For more on how builders approach the choice, see custom motorcycle builds: design ideas and examples and our motorcycle customization hub.

The look in leather

Brat style leans on simplicity, which suits a plain jacket. Leather Collection's men's biker jackets page describes a cafe racer cut as short and simple with a straight zip, and a classic biker cut as having an angled zip, a wider collar and more snaps and buckles. The store describes these as fashion biker jackets without riding armor, and lists armored race jackets as a separate range.

FAQ

What is a brat bike?

A brat bike is a custom with a flat seat, sprung rear end, low stance and non-clip-on bars, a style named for the Brat Style shop in Tokyo.

What is a cafe motorcycle?

A cafe racer is a motorcycle modified for speed and handling, a genre said to have started among British enthusiasts in London in the early 1960s. See the cafe racer hub for the full story.

Who started brat style?

Sources credit the Brat Style shop in Tokyo and its builder Go Takamine.

What is the difference between a brat and a street tracker?

A tracker is modeled on dirt-track racers and typically has wide bars and a narrow seat. A brat uses a flat slab seat and mini-ape, superbike or motocross bars.