B44 cafe-racer

[FELIX94]

I am currently assembling the B44 made up of parts recovered from all over the place, USA, GB, Austria, and of course France and other countries...

I planned a cafe-racer setup to take advantage of the road environment around my house which has very beautiful curves and bends.
For your information, I already have a very nice "regulation" Victor from 1970.

Of course, low handlebars, rearsets, and a backrest seat are essential. Before finalizing the work, I would like to know if anyone on the forum has a B44 or B50 cafe racer to inspire me...

attached are some photos of the work in progress...

[limeyrob]

That looks very nice. I think the B44 will make a great cafe racer.  Love your workshop too!

[beesa71]

Well, my contribution as inspiration is these two images of Mead & Tomkinson related B50's. Both images taken in France.

Image copyright unknown really but the one with all the chaps on I beg the use of as I am one of them.

Paul.

[FELIX94]

Thanks Paul,
Of course I know these machines, at least one and Gislain. I am in contact with him. I have some photos taken at the Carole circuit, but I can only take inspiration from them because the frame is not the same and they do not have a Kick!
These are real racing machines.
The one I'm preparing still has to be "civilized" to be used on the road to get bread and croissants...
Some of my photos...

[limeyrob]

Love the photo, now I have another thing to be jealous of beside that workshop!
Good call about Mead and Tompkinson B50's, I recall them at the time, they were achieving amazing results in 24 hours racing when there wasn't much to cheer as a BSA owner, a real underdog but getting serious results.  Its worth going on Youtube as there is now some great (but grainy) film of some of these races and its wonderful to the the little BSA circulating ahead of Leverdas and BMWs after 24 hours of hard racing.
There's a good technical write on the web with the changes they made and of course there is the connection to France.

[Mike40M]

Interesting project. Good luck with it.
Seems you have not used an angle grinder to destroy it.  
If it works out well, a future replacement of oil tank and battery compartment to make it slimmer could be advantageous. As a classic racer, I recommend making gear change linkage with first up.

[beesa71]

Whilst I am not at home I cannot post the (believed unseen) pictures of Mead & Tomkinson's B44, the predecessor to the mighty B50 campaign.

PM me for M&T chat if you would like to, I know a little about them.

Paul.

[FELIX94]

Surprisingly,
Despite my research, I've noticed that few B44s have been converted into cafe racers...
Either they're track machines, or are they still classic B44 SSs, even though everything lends itself to this transformation ?

It doesn't matter, I'm continuing to build my café racer, with the desire to try it out soon....