In the annals of dirt track history, one of the most famous race bikes is the BSA Trackmaster. Dirt fans will know that it was campaigned by the charismatic but crash-prone Dave Aldana, who also featured in the movie On Any Sunday.
In 1970 Aldana was beaten to the Grand National title by team mate Gene Romero, but fifty years later, there are still plenty of folks who remember the BSAs they raced.

The classic BSA ?Trackmaster? even has fans in Europe, and some of the most passionate are to be found in a small French village called Ouerray?a few miles west of the ancient cathedral city of Chartres.
That?s the home base for the workshop Atelier Chatokhine, which has built these two street legal replicas of the 1971 BSA racer.

?Chatokhine? is a familiar name to French fans of British motorcycles. Established in 1972, it has an long history in the entwined worlds of motorcycle restoration and customizing?probably because it specializes in old Brit iron, pre-1983. Founder Roland Chatokhine started up the business as a Norton Villiers workshop, and handed over the reins to his son Frank in 2004. But it?s still very much an old school operation, working with traditional skills and machinery.

?In the workshop, every detail is studied,? says Zoé David, a mechanic with a background in architecture. ?There?s machining, a lot of complex parts, and manufacturing.?
These two BSAs are ground up builds, and showcases for Chatokhine?s skills. They each weigh just 165 kilos (363 pou...