Velocette Thruxton 

I counted 21 attempts on bike #1, and another 12? on bike #2 right at the end of the video. These were presumably running the GP carbs and god knows what engine mods (racing bikes??), but the two riders are obviously seasoned Velo owners....what hope does that give me! I'm about to take ownership of a '54 Velo as my first velo...might even be your original bike ;-)

@TornadoCAN99 Wow! thats fantastic, I'm sure that you'll be delighted with it. Don't expect it to stop or the 6v electrics to be up to much!! If it's an MSS, does it have the excellent two level original dual seat and the adjustable rear suspension via the big hand wheels? Starting is an art, it's very well described in the original handbook. I'm afraid that despite what you said those lads knew nothing about how to start one, it isn't as difficult as they made out. Wishing you many happy Velo riding miles.

@tonycamplin8607 yes my MSS has the two level seat. Quite a few spendy bits bolted on: new stainless wheels; tires; rear hard pannier cases, stainless rear rack, electronic BTH mag, 12v electrics, belt drive primary kit, Amal concentric premier carb, TLS front brake off a BSA I believe. Also has turn signal lamps fitted, an absolute necessity in modern traffic. Expected to arrive here in Western Canada from Liverpool early March.

@@TornadoCAN99 I hope that you enjoy it.

@@TornadoCAN99 Bike #2 is modified with a modern AMAL Mk2 carb. AMAL GP's had no idle jet!!!!

I find my Norton Commando 850 likes a crack of throttle to fire up the dual Amal Concentric carbs, despite what seasoned owners/builders have recommended to me...I have no chokes installed, but it likes throttle open a tad when warm or cold starting, plus tickle when cold.

In the South Island? Where?

Sounds like my old bike. Used to jump out of 2nd and bend the valves......cause: sloppy rearset linkage, shimmed it out. Maybe not the best bike for a skint novice but the handling was amazing.

Got his technique all wrong, you're supposed to take it all the way down from compression, before bringing it up to kick I thought, not halfway. Just sayin'..

1290SAS??????

@@DennisMerwood-xk8wp KTM

The "arc" is to adjust the suspension softness, if you are using the bike with a full load, move the top of the suspension unit more vertical to give a harder suspension. Chris B.

@@453421abcdefg12345 thank you, that makes sense. In some cases, on other motorcycles, the length of the shock was changed to influence the rake of the steering head. If you used a longer shock it would decrease the rake, a shorter shock would increase it. I had a Yamaha DT 3 with a modified swing arm that lowered the rear slightly and increased the rake to improve the off-road handling. I thought this might be something similar to tune for different race courses. I have been wondering about those arcs for at least three decades, thanks for clearing it up for me.

@@terrycavender 3 decades! You are a patient man. The Vincent had an eccentric cam on the front fork to alter the amount of trail on the fork for solo/sidecar use, this was a very good idea but some people rode with the cam set on sidecar trail and got into difficulties. The Velocette suspension was designed at the very beginning of suspension /damper technology so it was thought a good idea to have an adjustable system to cater for varying rider/load situations, now of cause the units are adjustable, but then the units were of the oleomatic type with air pumped in for varying weight. Stay safe! Chris B.

As teenagers bought up in New Zealand on British cars and motorbike's we were always taught to NEVER hold the clutch in while stationery, and in gear. I think the clutch thrust bearings were made of cork! No, not really! But a material that rapidly wore out. A lot of work to repair. And of course, stationary, and in gear, it was impossible on a Brit bike to find neutral with the clutch pulled in.

No just learn the starting technique and use them regularly and starting isn't a problem. Our Thurxton and the Sportsman aren't problem starters

Nothing wrong with going electric start but still kick over regularly

Flood the carby first . Couldn't see where the advance retard was set. Then after finding compression come up fully and a decent full kick not stabbing and they will go first or second kick

Ernie Pico was well known in the Los Angeles motorcycle scene in the 60’s. He had a motorcycle shop called ‘Big City Sales’. Ernie was a Velocette man. He raced mainly flat track and speedway, but he also took his bikes to the Daytona beach races. His highly modified Velocette 500cc singles were very competitive with the Triumph’s, BSA’s, and Norton’s and he got a huge kick out of beating the factory KR Harley-Davidson’s 750's in the late 60’s. He ran his Velo’s at the Ascot dirt half-mile, and the San Jose, Sacramento and Portland Meadows one-mile dirt events. He had some very fast flat track riders such as Tex Luce, and Shorty Seabourne. Like the BSA Gold Star 500 singles, his Velocette single was always way faster on the long one-mile tracks than it had a right to be. Inside Ernie’s Velocette engine the fly wheels had been meticulously reduced in diameter to allow the fitment of a very short BSA Gold Star connecting rod, and a specially forged piston of his own design. The barrel, pushrod, and engine studs had also been shortened. All the bolts and nuts inside the engine were aircraft grade - friction grip type. The bolts that held the rocker to the head, Velocette's weak point, had been increased to 3/8inch diameter high tensile bolts. In his cylinder head Ernie utilized double coil springs with alloy retainers. With a 1.75inch diameter exhaust port and steeply angled downdraft 1.5inch diameter inlet port, and 2inch inlet valve from a Lycoming aircraft engine. His crankcases were built up around the mouth in order to allow the barrel skirt to fit into them lower. It is sometimes claimed that Ernie Pico’s engine tuning tricks were copied by the Velocette factory when they developed their “Thruxton” racing Model. Poor old Ernie it appears never got any credit.

@@DennisMerwood-xk8wp fascinating information - this all makes the Thruxton model even more interesting !! . . . As I understand it there was communication with the Velocette factory who were urged to incorporate some of these developments in production models . . . In those days sharing success and information was more a case of enthusiasts helping one another and working WITH a manufacturer rather than jealously guarding developements and keeping it to yourself - the world has alas changed since those better days . . Not sure that Velocette gained much from Thruxton sales anyway - hand built they had a very small profit margin and as you know, a very low production number . . .

@vonryansexpress Every old Brit bike follower of dirt flat track racing in America (this Kiwi lived in Seattle for 41-years) knew of Dick Man's incredible BSA Goldstar 500 single. But were less familiar were Ernie's Velocette and Shell Thuet's Royal Enfield 500 singles. And later on, Dick Mann's G50 Matchless. After the war Shell Thuet opened a motorcycle dealership in the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood. He became an Indian dealer and carried the English Royal Enfield brand. His dealership began sponsoring and building Royal Enfield’s to go flat track racing. He built his 500cc single flat tracker based on the street Royal Enfield Bullet pushrod 500cc engine, using a stock piston, and valves from a White truck engine. He also used Howard Forged aluminum rod blanks. His most famous rider was Elliot Shultz, who won the Ascot half-mile event many times. Having exciting duels with the great BSA rider Sammy Tanner. Al Gunter reckoned that Thuet's Royal Enfield single was the fastest 500cc single he had ever ridden, “No one could make an Enfield run, except for old Shell.” You mentioned 41 HP ~ for the 1933 Velo design. It was thought that the best Yank tuned BSA Goldstar was about 50 HP. To my knowledge Shell Thuet never dyno'd his Royal Enfield's. In 1962 The Indian Sales Company started sponsoring Dick Mann. Mann was provided with a new street Matchless G50CSR (only 26 were made for homologation purposes) and a spare G50 engine. Unlike the Velo and RE street engines, this engine was a pure race engine He built a BSA rigid Gold Star framed flat tracker using the ohc G50 Matchless engine. And after much haggling with the AMA he raced his G50’s exclusively from 1962 to ’64. Winning eight individual AMA National races, and the 1963 National championship on his Matchy! Nobody knows, but Matchless enthusiasts (like me) bragged this G50's were 55 HP. (But we would never admit it would not take the trashing a BSA could!) Anyway - sorry to bother you. This old man in his rest home has time on his hands.

@vonryansexpress Every motorcyclist knows about Kiwi Burt Munro famous for creating "The World's Fastest Indian" with his 1920 Munro Special. However, he also gained notoriety with "The World's Fastest Velocette" - a 1936 500cc Velocette MSS The Munro Velocette set a record speed of 132.35mph in 1971. An unofficial run even reached 138 mph. In 1957, Burt purchased the Velocette MSS for £8. Burt modified the engine to gradually increase its displacement, and the frame was lowered and modified to accommodate a fully prone riding position. The final version of the machine had a heavily modified aluminum MAC cylinder head. The Velocette also achieved a 12.3sec standing quarter. The Roger Donaldson 1971 documentary about Burt, "Offering to the Gods of Speed," shows him attempting a speed run on the Velocette, which promptly cracks its crankcase below the crankcase mouth. Despite reinforcement, MSS crankcases continued to be a weak spot. Burt claimed that he blew up the engine many times in his search for more power and speed. motoridersuniverse.com/news/1256623-a-brief-history-of-velocette-motorcycles.html

@@DennisMerwood-xk8wp its no bother at all - its fascinating stuff . . . Dick Mann was a legend, we saw him in Britain of course competing in the very entertaining Anglo American match race series - everybody admired Manns hard riding skill and tough competitiveness . . It was then we realised how good the Americans were, the skill gained in Oval racing gave them an edge, Kenny Roberts later demonstrated this skill and class on his Yamahas . . . I did read about Dick Mann and his G50 racer, I believe his bike was eventually outlawed for infringing the rules - I know a few of the Roadsters that were built for "Homologation" purposes still exist - what a motorcycle that must be !! . . .

aCtually according to all I have read on the subject, the Velo takes a little different starting method....get it to top of compression, then pull in the Ex. valve lifter to get it just over TDC, kick it one full stroke of the lever to the bottom position, let it come come up fully, with Ex. lifter released, now give it a full hard kick. Important as the gearbox & kicker ratio is not like other bikes and it needs a lot of flywheel momentum to bring it over the top of compression to have a chance to fire up.

My Triumph 500 and BSA Roadrocket 650 didn't have valve lifters. Valve lifters were used more on the big singles. @@TornadoCAN99

A Thruxton is a wee bit of a challenge to start. Especially if they still retain the GP carb. More than your average British single. 😂😂😂. These boys have been playing with them for a while. One at least since the 1960s. You can start a Matchless G80 in half a kick. But a Velo especially a Thruxton is way way way harder to start. Kicking British singles since 1968. 😁

Had a talk to the guys about the hard starting. They said they had just done a long run and the bikes were hot. They think the issue was petrol evaporating in the carbs. The bikes were fine to start when cold.