Monday, September 30, 2013

DKW 1939 SB 500




  DKW 1939 SB 500 electric start.  German , DKW , they were the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the World in 1939.
           Twin Cyl Two Stroke Motor !
    Fully restored to a high Standard. Rare, may be the only factory electric start in existence.
  This is an unusual Motorcycle , chances are you may have never seen one before .  Seldom, in the history of  motorcycles, were large two stroke motors, used in Luxury  touring machines .  Take a close look at the photos , and be assured they only hint of the quality of this machine.  Its no wonder Bob Schanz kept this bike so long and held it in such high esteem. Its beautiful from every angle and boasted technology  not matched again for decades to come.
      A beautifully restored and sophisticated Teutonic black and chrome masterpiece. It was the property of the restorer for over 40 years, since 1945. With a well known provenance. Restored in 1980. Acquired by, Hall of Fame Member, Bob Schanz of DomiRacer in a 1985 auction. Starts and runs  great, with an electronic ignition. Purchased recently from DomiRacer, Michigan Title available.
   This bike is a rare surviving example of  German excellence . Given the devastation that took place in Germany, during the second World War and the use and destruction of so many of its motor vehicles by the military, it may well be one of the  only survivors of this model.
 You may notice that the bike has similar lines to some of the smaller Euro two strokes, with single cylinder engines . Its not small, it’s a full size bike and the engine is substantial in size, it also has substantial get –up-and Go and  along with speed.
   The bike has undergone a complete and detailed restoration and has spent many years in the Domi Racer Museum environment. The chrome is awesome , no rust. There are be a few small scratches, a tiny dent in the rear fender and one in the front. All of these issues are so small as to be hardly noticeable.
    This Spring the bike was carefully gone thru , then started and ridden for the first time in many years .  What a joy to ride , smooth , stable and a fine example ,of what was ,a top of the line tourer . Unlike modern two strokes it has a very pleasant exhaust sound.
     This was an expensive and exclusive mount of the late 30’s and the last year example of the model. Vin # 516468.  I’m not an expert on this make , but have not seen or heard of another survivor with electric start.  The bike is so elegant , with a cast aluminum fuel tank, deep black gloss paint , highly polished Aluminum and Chrome accents. It shifts smoothly starts easily and rides like a dream.
    If you are looking for an unusual ride for rallies , the Rare addition to your Museum , or the next winner of the Concourse De Elegance . This might fit the bill. This bike just shouts, I’m Cool.

On that site now...http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DKW-1939-SB-500-Rare-electric-start-500-Twin-/151132540581?pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item2330338ea5

Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Brutally Beautiful 916 !!





Jim Higgins on the Salt



Jim Higgins is a retired Vallejo Fire captain and a well known Buell S2 rider and Bonneville Land Speed Record holder, currently holding six Worlds LSR Records.

 His current project is to build and ride the world's fastest Buell. It is an S2 with carbon fiber Buell RR100 bodywork and a 100 cubic inch turbo charged motor in the 300 horsepower range. The goal for this new motorcycle is to earn a place in the prestigious 200 MPH Club.

I worked with Jim when I was with the Vallejo Fire Department and he just getting into Bonneville racing when I retired out.  I was told that he had joined up with a couple of other guys after he retired and opened up a  shop, JT & S Performance which specializes in high performance Buells and Harley Davidson's.  His shop is located at Infinion Raceway in Sonoma California, this is the old Sears Point Raceway (which it still is to me).  It looks like they do dyno tuning so if you have the need for speed drop by and give them some business.

When I knew him he was trying to get his Buell to do 130mph, I believe, so he has come a long way from that in the last 10 years.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Happiness is ....................................


 
This picture really takes me back to when I would have done anything (almost) own a Triumph Bonneville.  Looks like one happy man ! 
Looks like a late 1960's bike based on the front brake and tank badges.

Triumph T120 TT Special


TT SPECIAL BUILT FOR US MARKETThe Triumph Bonneville T120C TT Special was really the brainchild of US West Coast distributors, Johnson Motors, also known as "JoMo". The factory had taken way too long to introduce pure competition versions of their popular Bonneville line. Edward Turner was opposed to the idea, but burgeoning demand for such machines in the US was impossible to ignore.

SIMPLE: STRIP IT TO THE BONE, MAKE IT FAST!
Introduced in 1963, the TT Special was essentially a stripped-down Triumph Bonneville with high pipes & special tuning. They dominated American TT Scrambles & Desert Racing for years. Nothing could touch them.

COOL NEW TT PIPES
And no wonder. With wild cams, big carbs & a 11.2:1 compression ratio, the TT Special pumped out 52hp! For the 1965 TT Special, compression was dropped slightly to 11:1, still very high (which often lead to overheating problems). But, the big news for 1965 was the introduction of those gorgeous "TT Pipes", larger diameter downpipes that angled inward then met under the front of the engine, where they followed the centerline of the bike, under the engine. They were straight pipes & they shot their hot blast directly against the back tire. They were, and still are the coolest-looking pipes that ever graced a Triumph (in my humble opinion). This firmly established the "TT Special-look". And it provided the needed side clearance for sliding through corners in TT Scrambles events. The use of TT Pipes makes using a centerstand impossible.

Folding footpegs were a welcome addition. But strangely, the parcel rack on the top of the tank remained. New Roadster forks were fitted for much improved ride & handling.

JOMO LEADS THE WAY
East Coast distribution was handled by the Triumph factory & they always seemed to lag behind JoMo when it came innovation. Despite this, a batch of East Coast TT Specials (from Engine #DU18838 to DU18880) were fitted with cams that had been treated by a hardening process knows as Tuftriding. Some East Coast bikes came with alloy front fenders & ribbed steel rear fenders (painted), while most TTs came with polished alloy fenders front & rear.

MY TRIUMPH TT SPECIAL


The black 1963 TT Triumph Bonneville pictured above is a bike I owned when I lived in Albuquerque, N.M.  I don't remember who I bought it from, it was just advertised as an old desert racer.  I have to admit that I didn't really know what I had at that point. 

It was very difficult to start as it had really high compression and wouldn't idle very well either.  My house sat right at the edge of the desert so all I had to do was ride about two blocks and you could ride as far as the eye could see.  I used to ride all kinds of bikes out there, it was especially cool in the evening.  The Triumph was another cup of tea all together.  I would take it out there and ride it around at the speeds I was doing on the little Honda I had at the time, BUT the real fun came when I opened it up and that bike "got on the cam".  I am fortunate that I didn't break my silly neck.  I don't know how fast I was going as it didn't run a speedo but I am very sure I was going 70 mph + way too many times.  All it would have taken is a soft spot in the sand and things would have gotten real interesting.

I kept if for about 6 months and traded it for a restored 1968 Triumph TR-6 that was pretty but had no where near the fun factor of the TT Special. 

EVEL KNIEVEL



Evel Knievel rode Triumph TT bikes for a lot of his jumps and stunts over the years.
Between 1967 and 1968, Knievel jumped using the Triumph Bonneville T120 (with a 650cc engine). Knievel used the Triumph at the Caesars Palace crash on New Year's Eve 1967. When Knievel returned to jumping after the crash, he used Triumph for the remainder of 1968. 

If memory serves me right he had a falling out with the West Coast Triumph dealership which shall remain unnamed because they wouldn't give him the financial support he needed.  If you want an example of a self made man, Evel was it.  He came up with his own stunts and financed them to get started.  It was a tough road but he built himself into the legend he still personifies today.

Monday, September 23, 2013

1959 and 1960 Bonneville Comparison



1959 Triumph Bonneville.  This is the one that brings the big money.  It was a first year bike and had a lot of the older features such as the nacelle headlight, etc. 



This is the 1960 Bonneville, it lost the nacelle and has a much cleaner look.  In my humble opinion.  The '59 brings bigger money but the '60 has the look !

1960 Triumph Bonneville



Triumph announced the ultimate expression of Edward Turner's 650cc pre unit twin in September 1958 ready for the 1959 season. Named the Bonneville in recognition of Triumph's record breaking success at the salt flats of the same name, the new machine replaced the Tiger 110 at the head of the sporting Triumph range.
The significant difference between it and the Tiger 110 concerned the cylinder head which was fed by two carburettors on splayed inlets together with a higher compression ratio, resulting in a claimed 46bhp.
The 1960 season machines adopted a new duplex frame and lighter styling, losing the headlamp nacelle and partially valanced mudguards which had graced the 1959 models, with further detail revisions to the frame occurring for the 1961 model season.

Triumph's Speed Twin had been one of the bikes that helped to set the pace before the war. After the conflict, the SOOcc Speed Twin spawned many descendants, from 350 to 7S0cc capacity. Above all others, the 650cc Bonneville became the bike that set the standard throughout the late 1950s and 1960s - the era of the Rockers and Cafe Racers.
 
The first 650cc Triumph appeared in 1949, when the softly tuned 6T Thunderbird showed its pace at the Monthlery speed bowl before going on sale the next year. The model was an excellent tourer.


 In 1951, a Thunderbird racer, equipped with twin carburettors, hot cams and high-compression pistons, reached 132mph at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. A few years later, in 1956, Johnny Allen achieved 214.4mph, a record accepted by the US authorities, but the world governing body refused to acknowledge it. Americans continued their efforts, and two years later a specially prepared Tiger I 10 managed to achieve over I47mph, ridden by Bill Johnson. The speed was good enough for a class record. That was in 1958, and the venue once again was Bonneville.

 
The first Triumph machine to bear the Bonneville name appeared in 1959. Based heavily on the Tiger I 10, the T120 was fitted with the twin carburettors, together with the hot E3134 inlet cam. With a power rated at 46 bhp, the model was already good for a comfortable I I5mph - but the engine had the potential to be tuned a lot hotter.

 
From 1963 they gained a new frame, with extra bracing for the swinging arm and steering head and a new compact power unit. The steering angle was changed and improved forks were adopted.

 
All these improvements helped the Bonneville to match its rivals' all-round performance. In the styling stakes, however, it had no equal. Where the contemporary BSA was worthy but perhaps a little stolid, and Norton's offering lacked the absolute glamour of its racing forebears, the 650 Bonneville oozed get-up-and-go.
On the race track, it got up and went! In 1967 and 1969 it won Production TTs and British 500 mile races.
 
 

 
 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Triumph Thruxton



As a factory, Triumph was never keen on racing. The autocratic Edward Turner's opinion always held sway and he felt that the way to make money was by producing excellent road bikes that ordinary customers wanted to buy at prices they could afford, rather than spending a fortune on Grand Prix racing.

The argument was soundly based because motorcycling in the 1960s was littered with factories that dominated Grand Prix but which were permanently on the point of extinction. Norton, FB Mondial, Velocette, Moto Guzzi, and AJS were just a few examples of marques that had made innovative, race winning motorcycles but were stagnating as manufacturers. By contrast, Triumph churned out simple, easy-to-build bikes that the customers loved - and without the need to spend fortunes on racing.

It was only when the Japanese came along with superb road bikes and charismatic race teams that GPs started to earn their keep in marketing terms - but that's another story.

Triumph always had an interest in off-road sport and there were two exceptions to Triumph's "no tarmac racing rule" too.

Interestingly, all competition activities, on and off-road, involved production based bikes.

The first was the Clubman's TT which was intended for privately owned road machines and provided a wonderful showcase for super sports machinery like BSA's Gold Stars. The second was the Southampton club's Thruxton 500 mile endurance race, held in the south of England, that again provided an opportunity for, supposedly, standard production machines to show their prowess in terms of endurance and speed.

After the demise of the Clubman's, ironically because it became a BSA benefit, the key event in Triumph's British calendar was the Thruxton 500 miler. This race fitted the factory's policy of not going GP racing but had the secondary benefit of keeping a race development program in existence that was relevant to the American market.

In the US, the big Meriden Twins did exceptionally well in oval dirt races, hare scrambles and classic on and off-road races like the Catalina GP. And given the choice of winning the Catalina GP, on the doorstep of his biggest market, or some obscure Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain, there was no doubt which was the most commercially attractive to Turner - and who can blame him?

Bearing numbers between MAC 231E and MAC 234E, four Bonneville racers were built up by Triumph as production racers.

There was never a period when racing activities were not undertaken at Meriden but things took a turn for the better when Doug Hele joined the factory in 1961. Hele came from Norton and was the man responsible for Dommie Racer twins - the racing versions of Norton's parallel Twin road bike. Hele was universally acknowledged as a good engineer; thoughtful, open minded and possessing vision. Doug was also an enthusiastic motorcyclist and believed strongly in the concept of the complete motorcycle - which was in contrast to Frank Barker, his predecessor at Triumph, who belonged to the school of thought that if the engine was sufficiently powerful, then the cycle parts didn't have to be perfect.

In 1958, Mike Hailwood and Dan Shorey won the Thruxton race and in the following year, "Thruxton" Bonnevilles were available from the factory; well, they were available in theory at least. At this point, it needs to be said that the name "Thruxton" is often misused. Strictly speaking, the name "Thruxton" only applies to the 49 machines made for homologation purposes in 1964/65. However, it was Triumph practice to put a note in the build book "Thruxton" when the bike was only a 650 intended for racing.

These bikes were nominally available with a whole list of "optional extras" from the "High Performance List" but the reality of the matter was that only bikes supplied to key dealers came with the goodies installed by the factory - private owners had to retro fit them by whatever means they could. Parts available ranged from high compression pistons, to carburetors, cams and followers and with a good turner, it was possible to build a quick Triumph.


The Works Bonnevilles are powered by a big Twin, which "makes good racing power from 3,000 rpm to 6,500 rpm."
There had been criticism that the factory were not keeping to the spirit of production racing - as if any ever did - so the factory decided to build a batch of true production racers to works specification. Not that they did of course - but this was the sales pitch. The key modification was to provide a positive oil feed to the exhaust cams, which were prone to seize under extreme conditions. This was done by fitting an external oil pipe to feed them directly. There were also wider front brake linings - increased to 1 5/8" - 19-inch alloy wheels and chopped Monobloc carburetors with a central float bowl.

Interestingly, although the bikes had been built for homologation, the Triumph race shop immediately improved them by having the tool room machine standard crankcases internally so that the oil feed was kept inside the engine. Les Williams, who was a key figure in the race shop, remembers the bikes being built and confirms that they were nothing very special. "They were built on the production line, along with all the other standard bikes. Then they were taken to the storage bays where the Triumph Tina scooters were built and the factory paid service department and experimental shop fitters overtime to finish them off on Saturdays and Sundays."

Strangely, Hele does not have too much affection for, or pride in, the MAC series. "I was always more proud of the bikes we put the most work into. The 1967 Daytona bikes (500cc Twins which won the Daytona race in1966 and 1967) were much greater achievements than the production bikes which were pretty standard."

William smiles when he hears this comment: "It's true - the production racers were Doug's "day job". When he went home at night he could dream of building Grands Prix racers - which was what he was really interested in."

The original aim was to build 50 Thruxton Bonnevilles, but apparently someone "mislaid" one of the special big-valve cylinder heads and so the fiftieth bike was broken for spares. This brings us to the start of the most famous of all the Bonnevilles, four bikes carrying the numbers MAC 231E to MAC 234E and arguably the finest production racers of their day.


In peak form, the special production Bonneville Twins produced 58 hp at 7,000 rpm.
Doug Hele expalins the design philosophy. "We always wanted to build bikes which were rider friendly. There's no use building a bike which is rider unfriendly because not even the most talented rider will get the best out of it."

Doug is also unstintingly generous in the contribution made by Triumph's chief test rider, Percy Tait, and his colleagues in the experimental department.

"Percy was a wonderful test rider - wonderful. He could ride a bike right up to the limits of its performance, and beyond, and still not crash it. He could also do the same thing over and over again which was a wonderful skill for a test rider."

"He had strong opinions too and needed to be convinced by argument and example that an idea worked. I encouraged this. All the team was encouraged to express their opinions and offer their ideas. It was a very happy team and we worked together well."

Les Williams has the same memories. "Although Doug was a highly intelligent engineer, capable of solving a problem entirely on paper, he respected the men in the workshop and was always asking us for ideas and there was no criticism if they didn't work."

The MAC bikes all started off in the most humble way - all were production line failures. If a bike had a major problem on test it was dropped off at the experimental shop for transformation into a racer.

Les expalins: " The first job was to disassemble the whole bike. If it was a problem like a porous crankcase, then this would be replaced or perhaps an oil pump had failed and we might have more work to do.


Our man Melling throws the Bonny around a corner, during its development Triumph utilized the riding skills of Malcolm Uphill for testing.
"The main modification to the works bikes were that they had toolroom heads and BSA Spitfire profile cams. To prevent excessive wear the cams were faced with Eutectic and the 3-inch radius "Big Foot" tappets were used.

"The pistons were normal Bonneville racing and gave an 11:1 compression ratio. We always used American S and W valve springs that we knew we could trust under racing conditions. Flywheel weight was increased to smooth out the roughness caused by the increased power.

"The best engines gave 58 hp at 7,000 rpm with a safe rev limit of 7,200 rpm.

"The rotors were skimmed to reduce drag and when the bikes were first built they had four-speed gearboxes because we weren't 100% happy with the Quaife five speeders. Later on, all the bikes were fitted with the five-speed 'box.

"The carburetors were quite special and built by Amal. They had extra long tapered needles and jet holders longer than standard too, which gave excellent mid-range power.

"We also introduced the balance pipe (between the two exhaust pipes) on this bike, again for mid-range power, and it was an immediate success. The silencers were another Hele success. They kept the bike quiet but still allowed good breathing.


 Unlike many production racers of its day, the Works Bonneville features soft handling.
"The chassis was very standard and is a credit to Hele's design ability. The front forks were shortened by an inch and we ran AM3 red linings in the rear brake and AM4 green linings in the front with standard hubs.

"19-inch wheels, with alloy rims were essential and when we began, we ran Dunlop TT100s but Malcolm Uphill liked the Dunlop KR "triangular" racing tire which gave quicker steering but made the bike unstable at high speeds in a straight line. Uphill was prepared to trade corner speed for safety but other riders, like Rodney Gould didn't get on with this set-up."

Doug Hele takes up the story: "As much as possible had to be done in-house because we only had a tiny budget. I can't remember how much it was, but our accounts' department always signed off the bills even if we weren't exactly in budget, so we always managed. Even so, some parts - like the alloy petrol tanks, seats and exhaust pipes were cheaper to buy in so we always did this."

Doug also had a budget problem with riders too. "The truth was that we didn't have sufficient money to buy the best riders and in any case, a production ride was not attractive - not like a GP ride. So we had to look for alternatives.

"In the case of Malcolm Uphill, who was the first rider to achieve a 100-mph lap of the TT circuit on a production machine, he was a much better rider than people think and than he was given credit for. I think that he would have been difficult to beat by anyone on a production bike."

And so to MAC 231E our test bike. This was one of four built in the Triumph race shop over the winter of 1966/67 but was not one of the works bikes. All four of the bikes were taken to MIRA and the best ones kept for the works teams and the rest released to favored dealers who would use them seriously. MAC 231E went to production racing enthusiast Stan Hughes, of Hughes of Wallington, and after a long and checkered history ended up in the hands of Triumph enthusiast Tim Whitham.

 The only aspect of the Works Bonneville that dismayed our tester was the 8-inch front brake. Tim's restoration philosophy is to leave the bike untouched cosmetically and to concentrate on the mechanical side of things. Certainly, the bike looks authentic and original but glancing down at the original TT100s, complete with sidewall-age cracks, I could not help wondering whether this approach was wholly appropriate for a racing bike. However, after just a few laps it was easy to see why this Bonny was the top of the production tree.

It is immediately striking that the Bonny does not feel like a production racer. Everything about the bike is comparable with a full-blown race machine of the time. Okay, it's not up to the definitive over the counter racer of the day, the G.50-engined Seely, but it is right in there when compared with a standard Plumstead-made Matchless G.50. As for Manx Norton, I have never liked the ride they gave. For me it was always too stiff for comfort. When a Manx lets go, it does so with commitment and the first thing a second rate runner like me knows about the job is when the bike passes you on its side.

By comparison, the Bonny has soft, forgiving, docile handling which must have been a dream in long-distance races or true road circuits like the Isle of Man.

There is no escaping the fact that this is a big bike. At 5'11" and 182lbs, I am tall and heavy for a road racer and so the long stretch didn't bother me but I could understand why small, lightweight pilots found the Bonny production racer something of a lump. Interestingly, Malcolm Uphill was tall compared with the norm, so perhaps this is one of the reasons he enjoyed the bike so much.

 Not built for Grand Prix wins, the Triumph Works Bonneville turned laps in endurance races and the famed Isle of Man circuit.

Ray Knight rode the bike to third place in the Brands Hatch 500-mile race and remembers the bike with fondness. "Some of the works BSA Spitfires were quicker than the Triumph but the Bonneville was a much better package. It really was a nice motorcycle and it was easy to ride hard."

The engine is just as good as the handling. Despite its twin Amals, the big Twin pulls like a tractor and makes good racing power from 3,000 rpm to 6,500 rpm. If one does make a mistake, the merest dab of the clutch gets the motor spinning again.

The Quaife five-speed gearbox is wonderfully sweet. The down for up pattern, still favored by racers, is, was, and always will be the most natural shift pattern and the gears float in effortlessly. Out of respect for the age and condition of the bike, I always used the clutch but Triumph riders used to pop in ratios with just a dab of the gear lever and a momentary easing of the throttle. The clutch itself is feather light and must have reduced workload tremendously in endurance races.

The only part of the bike that was disappointing was the 8-inch tls front brake. This was chronically oval and had a thin, road cable to operate it. This brake was the best stopper ever produced by a British factory and it can be made into a respectable tool for racing. However, to do this it has got to be in perfect condition. Even if it was, Triumph's preference for fitting the double sided tls Fontana front brake to its first string works bikes becomes understandable.

Without doubt, this is the one bike Triumph should have produced as a limited edition flagship model, as Ducati does now with its race replica Twins. Hand-built in small numbers, this Bonny would have soon accrued cult status and, unlike BSA's DBD Goldstar and much hyped Velocette Thruxton, the Bonny would make a superb road bike.

The one batch of Thruxton Bonnevilles built by Triumph in 1965 now command astronomical prices - $20,000 being regularly achieved. Just imagine what one of these later, and far superior, Bonnys would make.
 

Article written by Frank Melling




These two pictures are of a "Thruxtonized" Bonneville, there were very few "Thruxton" Triumphs built








Velocette Thruxton


Velocette Thruxton

From Wikipedia
        
ManufacturerVelocette
Also calledVenom Thruxton
Production1965–1971
PredecessorVelocette Venom
Engine499 cc (30.5 cu in), OHV air cooled single
9:1 compression ratio
Amal 5GP2 13/8 carburettor
Top speed180 km/h (110 mph)
Power31 kW (41 bhp) @ 6,200 rpm
Brakesfront drum, 7.5 inch John Tickle 2LS, rear drum
Wheelbase139.1 centimetres (54.75 in)
Seat height30.5 inches
Weight180 kg (390 lb) (dry)
Fuel capacity4.5 gallons
Oil capacity4 pints
Fuel consumption60mpg at 65mph

 

The Velocette Thruxton is a sporting motorcycle made by Velocette. Revealed at the 1964 Earls Court Show and produced between 1965 and 1971, it was the final development of Velocette's antiquated pushrod single, the Venom. Sometimes referred to as the Venom Thruxton, many surviving examples are 'upgraded' replicas based on the Venom. The Thruxton ceased production only when the company folded in 1971.

Development

An optional cylinder head for the Venom (possibly designed by either Lou Branch or Dick Brown) became available for racers in 1964; a Venom equipped with this revised cylinder head took first in its class at that year's Thruxton 500-mile (800 km) endurance race. Veloce introduced the Venom Thruxton production model in 1965 with an advertised 41 horsepower at the crankshaft. Period tests clocked it at 110 mph (180 km/h) without race tuning.
The well proven Venom was improved by Velocette designer (and owning-family member) Bertie Goodman with rearward placed footrests having brake pedal and remote gear-change linkage to suit, close-ratio four speed gearbox, alloy rims, twin-leading shoe front brake and 'clip-on' handle bars. The engine gained a race specification cylinder head to accommodate extra-large valves, a downdraught inlet port and an Amal 5GP2 13/8 bore carburettor with extended inlet tract which was so long it required a special cut out in the rear of the fuel tank. The upgraded engine delivered 41 brake horsepower (31 kW), 5bhp more than the Venom.
It was important for eligibility in endurance races such as the Thruxton 500 that competing motorcycles were genuine production machines, but although the Velocette Thruxton was sold in a road going version, it was really targeted at the racing fraternity.
No more than 1108 Thruxtons were manufactured before the company collapsed in 1971.

Racing success

Although named after the Thruxton 500 endurance race, for 1965 the race was actually held at another disused airfield, Castle Combe Circuit in that year. The Velocette Thruxton, ridden by Motor Cycle journalist David Dixon and Joe Dunphy, won the 500cc category.
In 1967 two Thruxtons, ridden by Neil Kelly and Keith Heckles gained first and second places in the 500cc Production TT, the first time a production-machine event had been staged at the Isle of Man with Kelly also recording the fastest lap at 91 mph.

Further Development

Geoff Dodkin and L.Stevens were two well-known specialist motorcycle retailers in the London area offering mechanical upgrades and cycle customising parts backed by their own race experiences. These included nimonic valves, larger lightweight aluminium oil and fuel tanks, seats, smaller megaphone silencers and an alloy top yoke.
The Avon Speedflow race fairing (made by Mitchenall Brothers) was introduced in 1964 in time for the June Isle of Man TT Races but the transparent, aerodynamic 'nose-cone' extending over the front race number plate area was soon 'outlawed' by the ACU, the UK motorcycle race-organisation governing body.
This led to the fairing being modified for a headlamp and offered for road use, complete with transparent nose-cone.
The Velocette Thruxton version was one of the first to be available, coming from the factory finished to match the standard Thruxton colour scheme in blue and silver or the optional black and silver.



ALL BUSINESS





These bikes handle and are very smooth when going at speed.  For such an antiquated design they do what they were intended to do, go fast through the twisties.