If there was ever a blueprint for the ultimate Moto Guzzi cafe racer, this is it. Kaffeemaschine’s latest build has the perfect stance, the perfect tank, and that iconic engine?blacked out, which of course draws even more attention to it.
Builder Axel Budde has been tantalizing us with his Le Mans-based customs for seven years now, and we never tire of them. There always seems to be a little bit extra or a little bit different in each build, but this machine, KM22, tops the lot.

?This bike was a ?free? project,? says Axel, who usually takes commissions. ?I wanted to build in a more modern style, but still with a 70s/80s race bike appeal.?
KM22 is, to put it bluntly, a mongrel. But instead of being a mish-mash of parts, it?s a remarkably coherent whole. The starting point was the frame, which Axel describes as a ?cleaned and modified? 850T unit from 1974.
But those mods are not your usual detabbing and grinder work: he?s worked the engine breather into the frame tubes with a labyrinthine system of welds, to cope with the high revs of the hot-rodded V-twin. This replaces the usual Moto Guzzi breather box that sits between the cylinders, separating the oil from the air.
The engine, transmission and rear drive are from a Le Mans Mk IV. Axel has gas-flowed the heads, upgraded the capacity with 1100 cc cylinders and pistons, and raised the compression ratio with twin spark heads.

He?s also fitted Carillo rods, a race cam and lighter valves, and had the crank bala...