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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 13/2/2008)
Alcester
Centre
(last updated 21/4/2008)
Northumbrian
Centre
(last updated 7/8/2006)
Wye
Valley Centre
(last updated 1/5/2008)
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
News (most recent first)
CHAIRMAN'S
RUN - SUNDAY 25TH MAY 2008
By popular request I shall be organising another jaunt for the
discerning Velo rider.
See the Alcester Centre News page for more info.
Jim Plant, Chairman.
FISHTAIL 371 - IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Your next Fishtail may be slightly delayed. Focal Point, the firm which handled the printing and distribution of our magazine for over ten years has let us down badly. We are arranging to get the magazine printed by another firm so please bear with us.
Jim Plant, Chairman.
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
THE
VELOCETTE OWNERS' CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008
[in case you missed it....]
The 2008 AGM was on Sunday 13th April 2008 in
Ockbrook, Derbyshire
Click HERE for details and directions
Special
50th Anniversary DVD
The club has produced a DVD of this year's Stanford Hall Rally featuring in the
main the special gathering of personalities from the Velocette past that was
arranged for the 50th Anniversary Rally.
The DVD has a short introduction giving a brief glimpse of the rally, the bikes
coming and going and the various Autojumble and other stalls.
It then records Velocette memories from the following ex Veloce employees,
racing personalities and our Club president.
Ron Barrett ex Veloce employee
Charlie Luck who raced Velocettes
John Peters ex Veloce employee
Ivan Rhodes Club President
Cecil Sandford who raced Velocettes for the factory
The gathering was introduced and chaired by Jim Reynolds. It
includes memories of the Veloce assembly line, the 24 hour
record attempt and the Veloce race team.
The whole film last about 1 hour 15 minutes and is very enjoyable,
informative and will make an ideal addition to a club member's library of
memorabilia.
The price is £9.99 including postage in the UK.
The price for Overseas is £11.99
Ordering and payment can be by e-mail & PayPal if using a Credit or Debit
Card, or by post and sterling cheque from the Club's PROs.
Click HERE to order using e-mail & PayPal.
Cheques should be made payable to "The Velocette Owners Club" please
and mailed to:
Roger & Jane Franklin
12a Hampton Close
Newport, Salop
TF10 7RB.
STANFORD
HALL 50TH ANNIVERSARY RALLY 30 JUNE & 1 JULY 2007
[in case you missed it....]
Click HERE to view
or download information about the Club's 50th Anniversary Rally
THE
VELOCETTE OWNERS' CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007
[in case you missed it....]
was held at
THE VILLAGE HALL, HUSBORNE CRAWLEY, BEDS
on
SUNDAY, 15th APRIL 2007 starting at 10:30am
At the kind invitation of the Woburn Centre, the 2007 AGM will be held at the
Village Hall, opposite the White Horse public house, Husborne Crawley,
Bedfordshire.
Refreshments will be available from 09.30am and a light buffet luncheon will be
provided after the meeting.
Parking is available at the venue and the Woburn Centre has kindly offered to
assist with marshalling the parking of the attendees' machines upon arrival and
the associated security during the meeting.
Husborne Crawley is less than 2 miles from the M1 Junction 13 and is sign-posted
from the J13 roundabout.
Alternatively, from the A5 at Hockliffe, the A4012 will take you straight
through Woburn to Husborne Crawley.
Click HERE to see a sketch map
For those of you wishing to make a weekend of it, there are Travelodge hotels at
Bedford, Dunstable, Milton Keynes and others not far away.
We look forward to a good turn-out and an interesting meeting in what is the
50th anniversary year of the Club.
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
Scottish
Centre Events
See the Scottish
Centre website for details of their 2007 Events
2006
Dave Allcock Championship Results
Robert Walker was this year's clear winner of the Club's
racing championship.
Click HERE to
view or download a copy of the final results
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 about 120 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 give me a
call so that I can send you a replacement.
Many of you who have become members in the last 12 months probably don’t even
know about standing order payments, so if this applies to you, and you would
like to pay by standing order, again, give me a call.
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.
Mike Spink
Velocette Owners’ Club
AGM 2006
Click HERE to view or download
a copy of the Minutes of the 2006 AGM
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
Velocette
Owners' Club Championship 2003
Archived - click HERE to view
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
Results
of the 2002 Dave Allcock Memorial Championship
Archived - click HERE to view
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.
Availability
of Leaded Fuel in UK
The Federation of Historic Vehicles
website www.fbhvc.co.uk has a list of
garages still supplying true leaded fuel, and links to the sites of suppliers of
additives approved by the FBHVC
Major Events
UK
Huncote Spares Open Days 2008:
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 13th January 2008
- including a 'Bring & Buy'
Saturday 16th February
Sunday 16th March
Saturday 12th April
Sunday 11th May
Sunday 8th June
Saturday 12th July
Sunday 17th August
Sunday 14th September
Saturday 18th October
Sunday 16th November
Sunday 14th 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.
