sye73,
don't know much about Brit cafe racers except that I like the look of them. Probably stating the obvious but the classic bike mags seem to provide a lot of useful practical and technical info, and I'm guessing web resources would be the same. I found the Gold Porfolio books by Brookland Books very useful for getting a feel for the period; they're reprints of road tests and reviews from when these bikes were brand new, and they do British marques as well as Dukes.
Here's a thread that covers a lot of the pros and cons:
http://www.ducati-upnorth.com/forum/...ead.php?t=2529