Replacing handlebars on a motorcycle can dramatically change its look and feel. For better or worse, the handlebar affects a motorcycle's aesthetics in a large way – they can stick out like sore thumbs or be the finishing touch on a purposefully designed front end. From apes to upside-down clubmans, the right handlebar can make all the difference to how your custom project turns out.

So, you want to build a cafe racer. How do you craft a stock motorcycle into a machine worthy of the cafe racer name? To help demystify the process, we’ve broken it into 10 essential styling and performance modifications. These 10 tips are the key ingredients of any build that sets out to pay homage to the fabled cafe racer ethos. From simple bolt-on parts to coaxing more horsepower out of your engine, perform these mods to get that old clunker ready to rip.

So, you rode your pride and joy to the last bike night of the summer, and after several enthusiasts mentioned your dilapidated side covers, you rode home without either intact. First, you deny it. It’s called a patina, you say. But then you reluctantly agree that years of oxidation really isn’t doing your motorcycle any favors.

Chewing up miles of the interstate on anything less endowed than a Honda Gold Wing can feel like arm wrestling Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It’s even more exhausting when one of your two-wheeled compatriots lazily passes you on said Gold Wing with his hands poised mockingly behind his head, and his feet splayed out on luxurious forward controls (ask me how I know.)

With a Ducati 899 Panigale as my daily rider, my chosen flavor of two-wheeled fun often forgoes practicality and comfort for raw beauty and spine-tingling power. I trade panniers for panache, a plush seat for sore legs, and forgiving suspension for surgical handling.

You roll your ride out of storage for the first time this year, ogling every curve of every fairing. “It looks so much cooler in real life than as my desktop background,” you squeal in your driveway, delirious after many grueling months of motorcycle deprivation. Your neighbor flashes a disapproving side-eye, but you only meet their stare with a toothy grin. The temperature is up and the days are long—nothing can keep you from the open road now.

When you hear the sci-fi howl of the LiveWire electric motorcycle, you might mistake it for a fighter jet or a Pod Racer from Star Wars—but you’d never mistake it for a Harley-Davidson. And yet, the LiveWire bears Harley-Davidson’s legendary badge.