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This "noticeboard" is available to any section of the Velocette Owners. Click HERE for guidance on how to submit items.
Centre websites - just click the name to visit your site
Scottish Centre
(last
updated 26/7/2010)
Alcester
Centre
(last updated 21/4/2008)
Northumbrian
Centre
(last updated 6/2/2009)
Wye
Valley Centre
(last updated 24/7/2010)
Woburn
Centre website
www.woburnvelocette.org.uk
Also
on the Web
The Velocette Owners Club of North America - www.velocette.org
The Velocette Owners Club of Australia - www.velocette.org.au
The Velocette Owners Club of the Netherlands - www.velocette.nl
The Velocette Owners Club of Germany - www.velocette.de
Velocette
Owners Club Social Diary
Click HERE to view
or download the Club's latest diary of events
VELOCETTE OWNERS'
CLUB 53rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
was held at the
VILLAGE HALL, ASTON, STONE, STAFFORDSHIRE on
SUNDAY, 18th APRIL 2010 starting at 10:30am
BY KIND INVITATION OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE CENTRE
STANFORD
HALL RALLY
was held on Sunday 4th July 2010
All those interested in Velocettes, very welcome
This year's Rally I am glad to say, will again be held in the
grounds of the above venue, on Sunday 4th July.
Following a number of requests, and bearing in mind the distances that many of
you travel to attend this event, we have approached the administrator with
regard to overnight camping. Their reply has been favourable. The location of
the camp site is next to the existing caravan park, just up the road (1/2 mile)
from the main entrance of Stanford Hall. There will be a charge of £7 per tent,
and £9 per caravan/mobile home per night. This will be collected by Jim Plant
(to forward on to S.H). Mains water is provided via a couple of stand pipes.
I have been assured that unlike last year (2009), no one will be allowed to camp
overnight in the Park itself.
We will be sharing the grounds with other groups on the day, as yet these are
unconfirmed. Should other Centres require a location saved for them, please let
me know, and I will do my best.
There will be the usual trade stalls and autojumble, as well as the 4 classes of
the Concours.
CONCOURS
Class 1 pre 1953
Class 2 post 1953
Class 3 racing & specials
Class 4 British-non Velo'
The New Imperial Club will again be alongside us as in previous years. It's
always good to see them.
The Saturday run is being organised by two E.Mids members (John Cooper and Brian
Davies). I understand that the route has been drawn up, and ridden to check it
works.
The gates will open at around 7-30 am on the morning of the Rally.
Enquiries to: Alan Harper alan25@lycos.com
News
(most recent first)
Bob Foster run
October 3rd 2010
The lunch stop will again be at Freshwater Holiday Park.
There will be shop and bar facilities with burgers, baguettes and chips available but unfortunately no carvery as it is out of season
David Cox
Secretary, Dorset Centre
THE
2009 DAVE ALLCOCK VELO CHAMPIONSHIP
1st Tim
Jackson 65
2nd Ian
Cramp 60
3rd Nigel
Lines 41
4th Alan Leatham
35
5th Trevor Johnson 26
6th Stuart Balnaves 25
7th Keith
Riley 22
8th Rob
Walker 20
9th= Peter
Crew 15
Terence Anderton
15
11th Dave
Burrell 12
12th Darren Whittaker 10
13th Cliff Ransley
7
14th Gareth
Crew 5
15th Clive
Thomas 4
16th John Coverdale
2
17th= David Brasier
1
Tony Ainley
1
Frankie
Ritchie 1
Membership Secretary
Changes
The Secretaries for Joining the Club and Renewing your Membership
have changed.
The contact for joining the Club is now the Membership Secretary (New Members).
The contact for renewal of your Membership is now the Membership Secretary
(Renewals)
The Overseas Secretary is no longer involved in either Joining or
Renewing.
Further details are given in the "Join The Club", "Services for
Overseas Members" and "Contacts" pages
New Velocette Owners
Club Regalia site
The Velocette Owners Club now has a dedicated website to enable
members to purchase some items of regalia on-line. You can pay using your PayPal account, or
if you do not have one, the site accepts Credit or Debit card payments. All
transactions are securely processed by PayPal. The site will make ordering
regalia quicker and easier, so please try it out. You can access it here : www.tinyurl.com/velocette
GROVE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES
Grove Classic Motorcycles, the main supplier of Velocette spare parts,
have moved premises. With effect from Monday 23 March 2009 their new address
is:-
82 High Street
Cranfield
Bedfordshire
MK4 0DG
Telephone:- 01234 752033 (New)
Mike Fotherby tells me the new premises are close to his home address and he does not anticipate any problems in maintaining the high quality of his service.
Jim Plant
Chairman
Results
of the 2008 Dave Allcock Racing Championship Sponsored by The Velocette Owners
Club
1st Tim Jackson Venom 67
points
2nd Ian Cramp 500 KTT 59 points
3rd Rob Walker Seeley Venom 36 points
4th Stuart Balnaves 350 MAC 35 points
5th Barry Sale Venom 31 points
6th= Keith Riley KSS & Nigel Lines 350
MAC 30 points
Unusual
Velo Wins "Best Bike" in Stockholm show
On 6 September 2008 Swedish Member Mats Hanslin
won "Best Bike In Show, People's Choice" in the "Mods versus Rockers" show in Stockholm.
Click Here to see his heavily customised
MSS
STANDING
ORDERS FOR MEMBERSHIP SUBS
Way back in Fishtail 342 you may remember that we
introduced subscription payments by standing order as an option, instead of
paying by cheque etc.
The idea was to give a trial period to this method of payment, and it seems to
be working quite well. The only glitch that occurred was that of a member’s
bank that decided that they would pay the member’s sub. each month rather than
annually. Good for the Club maybe, but a sum more in keeping with a subscription
to the Pink Rhino ( a popular pole dancing club in Brum.) rather than our happy
band. You’ll be pleased to know that the error was sorted out quickly.
There are already over 150 members who have opted for the scheme, so if you wish to
join them either complete the form that you had with Fishtail 342 or
DOWNLOAD A STANDING ORDER FORM to send
to your Bank....and do remember to
LET ME KNOW when you've done it so that I know that you have renewed your
membership!
That way your copy of Fishtail will continue to arrive as usual.
It's probably best if you initially use a cheque to join the Club, but we hope
that you will then want to renew by setting up a Standing Order.
Those of you who use "On-line Banking" can usually set up a Standing
Order on-line.
Benefits of standing order payment?
For you, not having to fill in a form when
your renewal is due and sending your payment.
For me, being able to spread the
workload a little.
As mentioned previously I can only deal in Sterling so it applies to U.K.
members only.
If you have any problems downloading the form, please do contact me if you would
like me to send you one.
Mike Spink michael.spink@talktalk.net
VOC ANNUAL SPONSORED RACE MEETING
- Photos
There was a good turn-out of Velos for the annual British
Historic Racing meeting, sponsored by the VOC, on Sunday 22nd June 2008. The weather
remained dry, but with a strong wind. Velocettes were well represented in the
individual events but sadly the BSA / Velocette Challenge Race had to be ended
after only two laps due the rider of a BSA falling and injuring himself.
Click HERE to see some racing photos from Tom Roche
Topical
News from the FBHVC
The
Velocette Owners Club is a member of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle
Clubs. Visit the FBHVC website at www.fbhvc.co.uk
for information about leaded petrol and changes to vehicle regulations etc,
and in particular do read the quarterly Newletters at www.fbhvc.co.uk/newsletters/index.htm
The Newsletter is very informative and required reading if you ride a historic
bike.
AGM
2008 - A good time was had by all
Over 100 members turned up to the Royal Oak at Ockbrook on Sunday 13th April for the club's AGM.
The meeting followed the traditional format with reports from the committee, followed by election of this year's committee members.
Prizes were given out to deserving members.
The weather proved kind and after a splendid buffet lunch and some Real Ale we moved on to Ivan Rhodes's house to inspect his collection of rare
Velocettes.
Click HERE to see some photos from Tom Roche
50
Years Old - the Velocette Owners Club; and Venom 353BTB
The first meeting of the Velocette Owners Club was on 9th March
1957, at the Red House Hotel in London.
50th birthday events will be announced in Fishtail, and then here.
Meanwhile, my own 1957 Venom is also just 50 years old.
It's had a hard life, so as a tribute to it and to Veloce Ltd I have recorded
some of the events in the 50 year life of Venom 353BTB.
Click HERE to read it, but it is a longish
article so if you prefer to read it off-line....
click HERE to download it as a Word document
that you can save and dip into later.
Update - with the engine rebuilt 353BTB is ready for another 50
years of hard riding:
click HERE to see 353BTB at age 50 years and
one month; or
click HERE for examples of some mods that
make riding a Venom more pleasant.
If you've read the article.... did Bob fix it? We think he did!
But there's another 1000 miles to do before we can be certain; watch this
space.
Yes - he fixed it! (And several other imperfections.)
Click HERE for a summary.
Tony Wright, website drudge, The Velocette Owners Club
New
Way for Overseas Members to Join or Renew On-line
For sometime now the Committee have been searching for the
best way to collect overseas subscriptions.
Foreign currency cheques and drafts can cost more to encash than the subscription
cost so are not accepted.
We are currently using the VISA facilities of the Spares company, but this
causes a deal of extra work.
Accordingly, we have opened a "Pay-pal" account to receive the
subscription renewals.
Pay-pal is owned by E-Bay, the world's largest market provider.
You do NOT need a Pay-pal account yourself, as the system will accept Credit
Card payments, at no cost to you.
The process is straightforward and uses a secure encrypted website, so your card
details are not divulged to us or anyone else.
Please note that this method of payment is only available to Overseas members at
the moment.
Please note also that with immediate effect, we will cease to accept renewals
through the Spares Company Visa system.
Click HERE to find out more.
Tom Roche, Treasurer, The Velocette Owners Club
Report
From The Velocette Owners’ Club
of Australia's 2005
Centenary Rally
Click HERE for a description
of this impressive event and photos of Velocettes under the southern
sun
Contributed by David Royston
The
Dorset Centre's Bob Foster Run 2005
The Bob Foster Run is an annual event organised by the Dorset
Centre of the V.O.C. It celebrates the career of Velo. Works Rider A. R. Foster,
TT winner, World Champion and Dorset motor dealer.
The run takes place on the first Sunday of October and regularly attracts well
over 120 participants. The starting point is the Village Hall at Crossways,
Dorset and from there the route takes you through the lanes and villages of
Thomas Hardy's Dorset, passing close to Dorset landmarks such as the Cerne Abbas
Giant (or the aptly nicknamed 'Rude Man') and T.E. Lawrence's cottage at Clouds
Hill, to mention just a couple. After a lunch stop on the coast the route takes
you back to the Village Hall at Crossways for afternoon refreshments and prize giving.
Photos
1 Ex Chairman Roger Franklin with
better half Jane.
2 West Mids. Centre
Members and Chairman Jim Plant - L to R John Wright, Jim Plant (Chairman),
Mike Spink (Membership Sec. No 146) and John Conolly (No. 138). No. 38 in
background should be R. Underwood from Dorset.
3 Scott and Passenger
4 The Village Hall at Crossways and the queue for
afternoon tea.
5 The autojumble - eager buyers viewing the lots whilst
the unsuspecting owners are enjoying tea inside the Village Hall.
6 Start 'em up. Those with difficult to start
machines were easily identified whilst other participants looked on.
7 They're off. Reading member Dennis Frost leaves
the start at Crossways Village Hall on his 1965 L.E. Mk III followed by No. 31 (Ariel) W. Morrana of Dorset.
8 Mr. Jim Plant, Chairman
9 Mr. Bryan Clarke Editor of Fishtail
10 Milton Abbas - Bob Foster Run 2004
11 Milton Abbas - Bob Foster Run 2004 -
Dennis Frost waves to the camera, aboard his 1963 Vogue
Contributed by Brian Coldicott
Report
From The Australian Single Cylinder Tour 2005
Click HERE for an explanation
and photos
Contributed by David Royston
Good
turnout at Stanford Hall Centenary Rally on
Sunday, 3 July 2005
Click HERE to
see a photo of some of the machines, taken by Tom Roche.
Velo
Technical Forum contributions available for download in new format.
In addition to the compendium of contributions up to the
end of 2002 to Dai Gibbison's Forum (see news item below) that was consolidated
as a Word document by Les Carman, a significantly reorganized version in PDF
format was recently contributed by David Liebl.
David has now compiled an updated PDF document that includes 2003 and 2004 in
addition to 2002.
Click HERE to go to the Q&A page to
request either document.
Velocette
Owners Club Stand at the Classic Bike Show in 2005
Click HERE for a
photo of our stand, taken by Tom Roche
Photographs
of the Hall Green factory and production line
Click
HERE
to visit a site created by Christopher Lumgair from photos he took at Hall Green
in 1971, including the Roarer and Model O.
Haynes
Service Manual for Velocette Singles
One of these apparently reached £58 in the Ebay online auction!
The manual covers Venom, Viper, MSS, MAC and Thruxton.
Although much of the information is already covered by the Factory service manuals, the diagrams and drawings are much clearer in the Haynes book and will be of great value to less experienced Club Members and those of you who have recently bought a Velo for the first time.
We have ordered these especially for the Club.
The prices are set out below. Please note we can only accept payment in Sterling and cheques must be drawn on a bank in the United Kingdom. Cheques drawn on foreign banks and any form of foreign postal order or draft can not be accepted as payment. Sorry we are not able to offer a credit card facility at present.
Prices including postage and packing:-
UK £19.50 European Union £20.50 USA, Canada & South Africa £22.00 Australia & New Zealand £22.50.
Cheques payable to "Velocette Owners Club"
Send to:-
Jim Plant
86 All Saints Road
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL52 2HA
Report
From The Australian 2003 Cape-To-Cape Rally
Click HERE for one rider's
experience of this year's Rally around a corner of what is clearly a rather
large country......
Contributed by David Royston
AGM
2003 Pictures of Some of the Award Winners
Chairman's award - Bob Higgs
Rosebowl trophy - June Kingsbury
Award to - Vic Blackman
Best Bike award - Bruce Boulton (&
KSS MkII)
Photos by Tom Roche
An
Impressive 100mph Australian MOV
Click HERE for a
picture of a remarkable MOV in the Museum at the Mt Panorama (Bathurst) circuit museum,
then HERE to read its story
Contributed by David Royston
Racing
Update from the 2002 New Zealand Programme
Archived - click HERE to
view
Photos
from Bruce Main-Smith
Bruce was the leading tester for 'Motor Cycling' and reported on many
Velocettes from the prototype Venom onwards.
The Velocette Owners Club is delighted to have received from Bruce some
photographs from his collection and a brief reminiscence of his Velocette
experiences.
Please click HERE to visit our
Photo Gallery and view the BMS photographs.
There's
now a better place than our Q&A page to get advice on your Velocette!
Use the Velo Technical Forum run by Dai Gibbison.
The Technical Forum is a better facility than the Q&A section of our site,
because it is "pro-active".
When you post a Q, it gets e-mailed to everyone else who has registered as a
member of the Forum.
Our Q&A page is still there, with all the many
contributions from the two years that it has been running, but it has relied on
visitors to the site noticing your Q - unlike Dai's Forum which e-mails the Q to
a rapidly increasing number of subscribers.
Although you have to plod through a boring 'join the forum' process, after that
it works very efficiently.
Please use the Forum rather than our Q&A page for any new Q's
Click
HERE to find out how it works.
Update
- Velocette WINS the 2001 Classic 500cc Clubmans Championship downunder
Archived - click HERE to view
UK
Historic Racing - new website
Phil Harris has enjoyed his first season of racing his Venom so
much that he's started a website to help anyone else to start racing with the
VMCC Racing Section
Click on www.vmcc-racing.co.uk
to find out more.
Velocette
Owners Club Stand at the Stafford Classic Bike Show in 2001
Click HERE for a
couple of nice photos of our stand, taken by Tom Roche
Regalia
from Montlhéry available to all
The T-shirt and Coaster which were commissioned for the 40th anniversary meeting at Montlhéry are now available as
regalia
The T-SHIRT costs £7 plus p&p
The COASTER costs £3 plus p&p
Order yours from the REGALIA page in
the usual way.
THE
VELO TECH DATABASE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR IS HERE AT LAST, COURTESY OF DAI
GIBBISON
Dai has compiled a comprehensive database of Velocette technical data -
most of the essential settings and clearances that can prove so elusive to hunt
down in print are now on-line at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.gibbison/v-tec/
This is on Dai's own website, so just click its name to go there and use your
'Back' or 'History' buttons to come back here. While you are there, make sure
you add it to
your 'Favorites' because you'll certainly be visiting it again. You'll be amazed
at how much information is already there! But there is room for more, so if you
have information to offer or spot the odd typo, do let Dai know.
(PS - Dai has recently added a table giving the number of Velos currently known
to the UK vehicle licensing authorities, with their year of initial licensing.
Some of these years are after the factory closed.....but that will surely be a
tribute to some heroic, back-from-the-grave restorations, as well as re-imports,
re-manufactures, and for certain admin reasons. Thanks again Dai)
Members will be amused to know......
....that Dai's spell-checker converts "Thruxton"
to "Thurston"
Clutch Plates from your Spares Company
Click HERE for information about
these special parts available from Veloce Spares
Ltd, the club's own spares company.
Important
New Publication
Velocette
Motorcycles - MSS to Thruxton By Rod Burris,
based on his well known and highly regarded earlier work, but with additional information and more pictures
- see also www.rodburris.co.uk
Owen
De'Ath offers copies of 1500 original Velocette drawings
These are from 35mm negatives made during the war of part
specification drawings from 1919 to 1941.
The drawing index is on Owen's website, www.owensvelos.co.uk
The index can be down loaded free.
Info is also there regarding 5 speed gear clusters.
To
help settle some club-night arguments...
While searching the dustier corners of the Old Chapel's
"library" (in the hope of finding more original Velocette Catalogues),
a copy of the factory's official Price List dated November 9th, 1956 turned up.
Click HERE to see it,
but allow a couple of minutes since it is an image of the original not just the
text.
To see some photos taken for catalogues or adverts and which may help define the
original features of some models, click HERE
Ed
Gilkison's website now available
The main man for Velocette parts and services in North
America, Ed Gilkison is now on the web with a site that offers many tips from
his vast experience. Visit it now at velogb.tripod.com
(Please note that there is no "www." needed before the site name if
you prefer to type it in later.)
KTT
Enthusiasts Website
Rob Drury, (who is well known to many Velo Owners for
keeping us supplied, until recently, with precious pressed steel and other vital
parts) has a new mission in life - the KTT. Rob has launched a website devoted
to the model, and it is already well worth a visit - just click on www.mkviiiktt.co.uk
Wiring
Diagrams Added to Our Website
Most are now in "Tech Info", in a format that should let you print
them in a legible format.
Major Events
UK
Huncote Spares Open Days 2010:
Our over-the-counter spares service will be available to members on the following days,
but non-members are very welcome and may join on the day
Sunday 10th January 2010
- including a 'Bring & Buy' at The Pavilion (formerly Huncote
Leisure Centre)
Saturday 13th February
Sunday 14th March
Saturday 10th April
Sunday 9th May
Sunday 6th June
Saturday 3rd July - open from 2pm to complement our Stanford Hall
meeting
Saturday 10th July
Sunday 15th August
Sunday 19th September
Sunday 17th October
Saturday 13th November
Sunday 12th December
Opening times are 10 - 12.30 and 2.15 - 4.00
(Click Here for Directions to The Old
Chapel, Huncote)
Our Web Site
Launched on 1st September 1999, the aim of the web site of the
world-wide Velocette Owners Club is to help "Keep Velocettes Alive:
In the Mind, On the Road, On the Track"
The design of the site aims to echo the Velocette engineering standard: nothing
frivolous (well, almost nothing), and the use of colour is limited mainly to
"black and gold".
You don't get an image unless you ask for it, and
even then it is sent as efficiently as its quality permits.
Improvements
made in "STAGE 2"
of velocetteowners.com
Although our site is clearly appreciated by those members who have used
it, it is equally clear that the majority of our members do not yet have
comprehensive web access. As a Club, we cannot yet justify becoming a
"secure site", with "shopping cart" facilities. Nor can we
yet justify issuing passwords to everyone so that a
"members-only" section could give immediate access to Fishtail and our
technical archives. It is probably just a matter of time; but the time is not
now.
Our primary communication medium will continue to be the printed copy of
Fishtail, mailed regularly to each and every member and, we hope, getting even
thicker and more frequent. On this principle, the only commercial references or links on our website will be
those which relate to current trade advertisers in Fishtail (see Contacts
for the current Adverts and the address of the Trade Ads Secretary). To
advertise on this site, or to add a link to a commercial site, just put a trade
ad in Fishtail!
HOWEVER, we did want to use the internet to make even more improvements for the
hundreds of non-UK members of the Club.
Two areas were identified as high priority:
1. "MEMBERS SALES & WANTED" Advertisements in
Fishtail to be available immediately to non-UK members through the internet.
2. "MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL" to be possible for non-UK members
through the internet.
BOTH ARE NOW
AVAILABLE - just click HERE
to see how.
