For reasons that, to this day, defy all rational attempts to define & explain it, in the early to mid-70's a group of EuroBike nuts coagulated in the small college town of Clemson, South Carolina, home to Clemson University, one of the original Morrell Land Grant Institutions, nestled in the foothills of Upstate, South Carolina hard against the Blue Ridge escarpment in northwestern SC.

And, perhaps more important to this synopsis, home to The Study Hall Bar & Restaurant.

For it was The Study Hall that was/shall always be, the birthplace & birthright of the Clemson Café Racers. Located on Main Street, at the corner of Sloan Street and North Clemson Drive, across from Judge Keller's Dry Goods Store, its U-shaped bar and nearly floor to ceiling windows on two sides provided Study Hall patrons a sweeping view of the panorama that was downtown Clemson. If you traversed Downtown on foot or by vehicle, chances were, somebody in the Study Hall took note of your passing.

Perhaps a brief note regarding the patrons of The Study Hall is due here. Clemson is most assuredly a college town, the town population ran about 3,000 verses 10,000 for the school, with, at that time, only a very few bars to serve a predominantly male student population, who, back in that day, could drink at eighteen years of age. However; The Study Hall was not their venue. Everyone else, from townie to hippie to faggot to faculty to transient would drink at The Study Hall. The student population gave the Study Hall wide berth. Even the regulars were known to abdicate their barstools on Thursday night as it was given over to members of the alternative life style. [Not to mention the Dixie Wheels who frequented for a time. But that's another story I suppose. Ed.] As stated, students rarely ventured through the double doors of The Study Hall.

On any given night, and please recall this was the mid-70's, you could count on seeing a 750 SS Ducati, a brace of R90S BMW's, Norton's of every iteration, the occasional Triumph, a Moto Guzzi V-7 Sport or two with up to a score of Ducati Sports, plus the odd Ducati GT, BMWs of the none S variety, MV Agusta and Ducati singles, a Harley XLCH, a Bridgestone GTR (!, the only Japanese bike allowed in Clemson Café for a period) and pretty much any non Jap sporting ride that was on the road back in the day. We would be remise in not stating that the great Japanese racer-replica explosion was still a few years off during the period that Clemson Café was conceived and delivered to an accepting world. While the occasional Honda 750-F, Kawasaki Z-1 or Mach III, Yamaha 650 or R5 was sighted, none were participants in the early days of Clemson Café. Yes, we were motosnobs. A slogan from these early days, attributed to Elder Tom Allgood was, "Four Strokes for Lovin' Folks". We had no truck with riceburners two or four stroke.

Submitted 12/28/05 by Mark Wishart