Velocette Venom
My Venom started life as a 1961 to clubmans specs. In 1990 the second owner decided to have the bike rebuilt at the establishment of R.F. Seymour a well known Velocette specialist in the town of Thame near Oxford in England. The new specifications included Alloy rims, a Seymour T.T. close ratio gear cluster, Tickle twin leading shoe front brake, a Dodkin lightened and fully balanced flywheel, Thruxton fuel and oil tanks, uprated front and rear suspension, an Amal Mk2 Concentric and new instruments. While on a trip to the U.K. I visited the Hawthorn R.F.S. workshop in Thame and learnt these details. When I purchased the bike it had 3200 miles on it since its reregistration in 1991 and had with it copies of work orders and vehicle inspection certificates for every year up to 2004! The owner was selling because he was getting too infirm for the starting drill. I had the bike shipped and uncrated the machine in Aug 2003, and thus began my stewardship of this piece of m/c history! The bike is fast and it demands some clutch slip to get away, much like a BSA Gold Star. I am in the process of lowering the gearing as it came with a 20T sprocket instead of the standard 18T. This bike has been set up for top end and I need to tame it slightly. I also intend to check out carburetion and magneto performance. I love the size and handling of the bike although on slow corners (around town) I feel that the narrow Avon Venoms front and rear prevent me leaning in on a tight line at those kind of speeds! Perhaps a Speedmaster and SM Mk2 are called for!
