autoevolution
 

1951 BSA B34 Still Rides Daily

Nate Hudson remembers his father riding the BSA B34 back in the '50s and this memory was the inspiration which drove him to restore an old eBay find to the former glory, instead of chopping it off and transforming it irreversibly.
1951 BSA B34 7 photos
Photo: Scooter Photo
1951 BSA B341951 BSA B341951 BSA B341951 BSA B341951 BSA B341951 BSA B34
The bike he sourced needed a lot of work so Nate decided to give a complete, ground up re-working, retaining as much as possible from the original machinery. The overhauled engine was now clean and had a new piston, new rings, valves and bearings and it ran pretty smooth, with all the cases and the gearbox well taken care of.

Nate told BikeEXIF that the biggest problem he had was the charging system: in fact, the lack of charging, for what's worth. At idle, the weak dynamo only delivered 0.5V, which was far less than what was needed to keep the lights going. So Nate carefully hid a gel battery aboard the 1951 BSA, to compensate for the lack of power when idling at traffic lights.

The rest of the machine got a nifty paint job and the fenders and tank also received a classic pinstripe for a completely retro-approved look. Finally, the coolest thing about Nate's bike is the fact that he rides the B34 on an almost daily basis to his shop, British American Motorcycles, and that's a thing not many other 60+ years-old bikes can do.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories