Ton-Up TV: Now Streaming for Custom Fans

Cafe Racer TV ran on Discovery Velocity network from 2010 to 2015. Fans of the show decried its loss, but the show’s creator and host Mike Seate has hinted for years that something new will replace it.  Discussions progressed with the Xcelerate platform, but  Seate had other ideas. “After waiting months for the powers-that-be to begin production, we decided that the TV landscape has changed quite a bit since CRTV first aired. We realized that with our contacts, knowledge of the custom bike scene and a dedicated staff, we could produce our own series with none of the corporate nonsense associated with mainstream broadcast media.”

The Cafe Racer magazine crew began work over the past Winter, pulling on connections with some of the country’s top custom motorcycle builders. Of course, anyone who’d been featured on the original CRTV were all for it, especially when assured that the ‘cheesy concepts and unnecessary fluff’ that bogged down the series would be eliminated.  Instead, the concept for the new show, dubbed Ton-Up TV, is to feature ‘the intricacies of designing, building and riding handmade motorcycles.’

Seate explains, “We’ve enjoyed an unprecedented level of industry support with major manufacturers Harley-Davidson, MV Agusta and Ducati sending us new, 2022 streetbikes to customize however we want. That’s an impressive roster and quite a challenge customizing these modern, high-tech motorcycles for the first time, but with the level of talent and mechanical expertise we’ve assembled, it should prove a real blast.”  His Pittsburg team will be modifying these bikes, and filming the process, plus documenting the work of other customizers, and filming the process of overhauling a few classics, including a 1977 Honda CB750, Norton Atlas/Commando special, and other bikes seen in Cafe Racer magazine.

Where can you see it?  On their new website, www.tonuptv.com, which will be interactive with the audience.  The schedule for Season 1: Moto Guzzi’s Centernary at their new museum on Lake Comom, Chicago’s Motoblot street festival, and the inaugural Valhalla Custom Motorcycle Builder’s Showcase.   As Mike Seate explains, “It doesn’t matter if you’re an old school British bike rider or a new school customizer who favors water-cooled, fuel-injected streetfighters – Ton-Up TV will cover all of it and then some.”