Velocettes

[Seeker]

There were 9 Velocettes at Willingham Woods this morning, I can't tell the difference between the Venom and the Viper so they may have all been Venoms (500cc).
I was surprised how effortlessly all of them started when they set off. A couple of them had the 1960s version of SatNav - a tightly coiled paper roll with route directions that you would unroll as you progressed.

A Yamaha two stroke twin then showed up in what I thought was YDS7 (250cc) paint but the owner said it was a YR5 (a 350, which I used to have). He claimed it was original but I'd never seen one painted like it - first gen were orange/white, 2nd gen were a darker orange (mandarin?) and black. Learn something new everyday (or he was wrong ).

[Craig380]

Big singles are fairly easy to start once you have the knack ... the trick is, if they don't start 2nd kick, give them a minute to reflect on their sins before trying again.

If you try the 3rd kick too soon, they invariably kick you back ... a mate had a particularly obstreperous SR500 that was like that. And if you even looked at the throttle when kicking, it would refuse to start.

[SV650rules]

My brother had a 350cc Viper and if I recall correctly it had a valve lifter lever on handlebars to help with starting.... the 500cc Venom definitely had one - all the old singles seemed to have one..

click on 'starting procedure'...

https://www.velocetteclassics.com/faq.html

[Seeker]

I know the theory, push slowly down on the kickstart until you feel the piston coming up to tdc on the compression stroke. Ease it over tdc using the valve lifter, release the valve lifter, lunge down on kickstarter to give it the momentum to get over the next compression stroke and it'll either fire and start or kickback and break your ankle.
If you go to britbike.com forum you'll find a steady trickle of elderly riders (like myself) who have damaged knees/ankles and need an electric start conversion - and that's on the twins.

Maybe it was because all the Velos were warm but I didn't observe any fancy technique, it was kickdown once and start.

[SV650rules]

Maybe the idea was to get the piston halfway up the cylinder by using valve lifter, thereby reducing the compression ratio, and also retard the ignition with the lever on the handlebars so that it did not get a spark too early and then try to push piston back down the way it was coming up.....

[Craig380]

An old joke among Panther owners (the big 600cc sloper singles) is that the best anti-theft device is to leave the advance/retard lever on full advance when the bike's parked. Hard to steal a bike with a broken ankle

[SV650rules]

My dad had a 600 Panther, built by Phelon and Moore in Cleckheaton, deepest Yorkshire. Revolutionary because it used the engine as a stressed member of the frame. https://www.rideapart.com/articles/2...moore-panther/

Many great things came out of Yorkshire, anyone remember the Jowett javelin, once again ground breaking.

https://www.classicandsportscar.com/...jowett-javelin

[garynortheast]

My last Brit bike was a big single, a BSA M21, 600cc side valve machine. I changed a couple of things on it to make it run smoothly and start more easily. Most important change was the carb, from an old, worn out Amal remote float carb (known euphemistically as a B0ll0ck Dropper!) to a more modern Amal MkII Concentric. It started first kick every time and ticked over like clockwork.
The only time it would kick back was if I tried to start the machine with the piston on the compression stroke and without retarding the ignition at the lever.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Seeker

A couple of them had the 1960s version of SatNav - a tightly coiled paper roll with route directions that you would unroll as you progressed.

The other version is a see through pocket on top of tank with the main points / towns on the route ( we would call them waypoints is satnav speak ) and the road numbers ... The problem with using satnav is you can get somewhere without really knowing how you got there...