Some people get all the luck, a low mileage unit single Beezer! Read all about Tony Riches’ restoration here.

It's not every day you see a 1968 BSA in the local paper with only 16,000 miles on the clock and a wodge of documentation to prove it.
Which is why I found myself watching it leak oil from at least three places onto a fresh newspaper in my garage. Some things were easy to decide on. All the rubber parts were perished and would have to be replaced.

Someone had tried hand painting the tank badges and got bored half-way through from the look of it. The whole wiring loom was in desperate need of attention and the lights didn't work.
Thanks to a Boyer unit it started first kick and ran cleanly with no smoke from the exhaust, however. So now came the hard bit - how far to go with rebuilding and restoration? It's been very interesting to follow the debate in Classic Bike Guide but there are no easy answers. At one end of the scale, there are good arguments for leaving a bike like this in 'original and unrestored' condition. This would mean preserving as much as possible as it is and just tidy up, sort the leaks and make it safe, legal and reliable. At the other end is the 'concours' nut and bolt restoration.
A big pile of CBG back issues were consulted to help with decision making and revealed that while the B44 is most sought after in off-road form, the roadster makes an ideal first classic bike and is covered in detail in the excellent 'Rupert Ratio Unit Single Engine Manual.' A price list from TMS in Nottingham showed that BSA parts are easily sourced and reasonably priced, so it wasn't going to cost a fortune.

After much deliberation, it was decided that on the grounds of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" the engine rebuild would wait for a few seasons but everything else would be stripped and assessed. Most things came off easily, but the forks were seized into the yoke and wouldn't budge despite a generous application of penetrating oil.

The Haynes manual offers helpful advice that the yoke should be 'struck from the underside with a rawhide mallet or, if this fails, BSA tool C1-3824 should be screwed into the top of the stanchion and struck.' After increasingly serious hammering, one of the fork top nuts, which had hardly any chrome left, was substituted for the BSA tool and solved the problem to the sound of all the ball bearings in the steering head falling out.
The bare frame was nearly sent for stove enamelling but, as it was in remarkably good condition, was treated to several coats of Eastwood's Chassis Black. This is a specialist American epoxy spray favoured by classic car restorers, which gives a tougher finish than ordinary paint but worryingly, the can is labelled 'contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects.'
With everything degreased and laid out on the bench, it was time to decide what to keep and what to replace. One of the first purchases was an original B44 parts catalogue from TMS - as well as making ordering easy, the exploded diagrams are a great supplement to the sometimes obscure photos in the Haynes manual.

Apart from the rubber items such as the fork gaiters, the things that had really suffered were chrome parts - some of which had been painted black by a previous owner. As all the nuts and bolts had come off they'd gone into a biscuit tin and now looked a sorry assortment, so as well as new fork top and crown nuts, it was decided to replace the lot with new. Another hard decision - zinc, chrome or stainless?
A call to Custom Fasteners in Powys established that the cost would be about £20, £40 and £80 respectively, so based on previous experience their highly polished chrome seemed a good compromise.

The headlamp shell and front mudguard had been re-chromed by a previous owner and were in good shape. Although the exhaust had been stained by an oil leak at some point in its history, it was definitely original and serviceable, as was the rear mudguard, so they both had a really good clean and went in the sorted pile. C&D Autos in Birmingham came up with an identical replacement for the old (rusting) handlebars and Classic Transfers were able to replace the original transfers on the tank and side panels, which were just about discernable.

A useful call was to Barry Palmer of Bri-Tie mail order spares in West Wales to sort out a leaking petrol tap. Barry is the secretary of the BSA Owners Club and, if you can get hold of him, can tell you anything you need to know about BSA spares.
This just left the loom and tank badges to sort. Once free of its 30-odd years' accumulation of insulating tape, it was easy to replace any dubious wires using the old ones as a pattern and fit new terminals where needed. The tank badges were a real challenge, however. You can buy new bare metal badges - but not enamelled in the correct colours.
The only solution was to strip off the old paint, spray with gold enamel and painstakingly paint the red and white by hand with a very fine brush. (This probably took longer than all the rest of the work put together but was worth the effort when finished.)
The rolling chassis went together again easily with all new nuts and bolts - too easily. It was only when the front mudguard wouldn't fit back on that it became clear that the fork stanchions had somehow been swapped over and were back to front, so all the front end had to come off again. The engine was treated to a thorough degreasing before being eased back into the frame and all the oil changed.

It would have been nice if it had started first time but, after some diagnosis, I found that despite making careful note of the wiring, the Boyer unit had been connected wrongly and blown, so there was no choice but to fit a new one. Purists may flinch at electronic ignition, but starting is made so much easier and just in time for the trip to the MOT test, the engine was ticking over again as BSA intended.
On the trip back from the test centre, I was confident enough to open it up a bit and was pleasantly surprised by the willingness of the 441cc engine, crisp exhaust note and confident handling that showed why the B44 is still sought after and makes an ideal first British bike for those used to more modern engineering.
Originally exported to the USA, this particular bike had come with the paperwork from the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles showing that a previous owner had been Albie Colton, who bought it for $300. Mr Colton's address was on the form, so I wrote to him with a photo of the bike as it is now and he replied, explaining that he had only parted with it once he was too old to ride.
The first MOT certificate shows it was imported to the UK in 1998 and spent a couple of years in the Reading area before coming to South Wales, where it has proved to be very reliable and a pleasure to ride - a classic British motorcycle, back in regular use and good for the next 30-odd years.