The latest build from Dime City Café, The Ace, built to commemorate the Ace Cafe’s expansion to the U.S.
In case you hadn’t heard, London’s iconic Ace Cafe is coming to America. The U.S. arm of the fabled motorcycling eatery is being spearheaded by American entrepreneur and motorcycle enthusiast Mark McKee, who’s partnered with Ace owners Mark and Linda Wilsmore to expand the Ace brand in the U.S.
The promotion of the brand as Ace Cafe USA is being accompanied by various vintage motorcycle happenings, including a recent August 13 roof top soirée at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where McKee, Wilsmore and none other than comedian Jay Leno hosted a special reception for the recently revived Brough Superior Motorcycles, celebrating that brand’s return to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
But the first thing I saw walking out of the elevator onto the Peterson’s rooftop terrace was the latest build from Jason Paul Michaels and Herm Narciso at Dime City Cycles, The Ace. Built to commemorate the Ace Cafe’s coming to America, the bike is a modern take on the classic Triton theme. Power comes from Triumph, naturally, in this case the fuel-injected 865cc parallel twin used in the current Triumph Bonneville. The frame borrows its basic layout and geometry from the famous Norton Featherbed, with revised steering geometry and a modern Suzuki GSXR upside down fork.
Left to right: The Garage Co.’s Yoshi Kosaka, Mark Wilsmore of the Ace Cafe London, Jason Paul Michaels and Herm Narciso of Dime City Cycles.
Jay Leno gets the lowdown on the The Ace from Dime City’s Jason Paul Michaels.
We didn’t get to see the bike in motion of course, but Jason did fire it up a few times and it sounds fantastic, with a nice meaty growl from its twin pipes accompanied by the throaty induction roar from a pair of unfiltered smoothbore carbs. Plans call for 13 examples to be built, although we haven’t heard any word on when and how much. Nice. — Richard Backus