Propper ride!

I'm going to have to lay off the video posts, but I really can't resist this one of a ride in the Malverne hills on a beautifully restored Venom.



In fact his bike is a bit of a looker I find.

The whole restoration is beautifully catalogued from a basket case to what you see here at:

http://velocettes.com/

It's thoroughly inspiring and really worth taking some time to look at.  Hats off to the man called John who otherwise leaves his name off of the site - he's certainly raised the bar!

Getting A Head

Well something has to get awkward sooner or later and as luck would have it the cylinder head is becoming just that.

I thought this would be an easy place to start off, given that the bottom end was done before and is unused.  I was even thinking of throwing in a couple of new valve springs for the hell of it, but on cleaning up parts I found that I have things to attend to first.  The butcher’s bill so far is:

• Exhaust valve + guide
• Inlet valve + guide
• One rocker arm

                                                     A badly scored exhaust valve stem...

                                          ....and the offending rocker arm.

This’ll set me back the fat end of a ton.  Actually that’s not bad value when you think about it.  Years ago my old CB550 cost me more than that for just a top end gasket set and four spark plugs.  At least I'm getting precision made parts this time.  

The bit I never like is changing the valve guides.  They have to be knocked out of a heated cylinder head using a hammer and drift.   There's something that feels intrinsically wrong with hitting such a beautiful casting with a hamer and a steel rod. 

On the positive side the head’s ok apart from it needing to be cleaned up.  I blew the oil ways through with compressed air and trichloroethylene and some crap emerged leading me to suspect that the top end was being a bit starved of oil.  It could have been worse; it could have been not a single. 

                                                                Bath time!

The rocker box bearing faces appear to be ok despite the scoring on the steel arm.  I’m going to get a microscope out for these though, as the alloy could have glass in it.  If a plain aluminium silicone alloy bearing is starved and overheats, the alloy gives up silicone which re-crystallises like a set of glass knives against the steel parts running in that bearing.  This will end up leaving scoring in the steel bearing face and all manner of bad stuff.

Next is to get a couple of drifts for replacing the valve guides.

Someone's Sunday Run

I know, I know, I'm a YouTube junkie.  This is a beautifully done SR500 cafe racer filmed to a superb soundtrack by the Greenhorns (a bit like the Sonics).  I'm off to fiddle with engine parts, it's a lovely Sunday...

Blue blood or blueish in a certain light anyway.

I have to tell a few truths about my trusty Venom.  Like any relationship it requires going back to the beginning in order that the truth is not lost in what is to come in this project.  You'll see.

I bought my bike in south Bristol from a really dodgy bloke who was selling off his "collection".  Originally I went to look at a Triumph T100 but he sold it before I arrived.  Then he wheeled out this frightening looking red cafe racer.  The asking price was £550, scandalous in 1978 and in the end I paid £500.  The guy acted like he was forced to give away his priceless classic but the truth was that I had been comprehensively fleeced. 

I replaced the gigantic red fibreglass petrol tank with a Thruxton one and my bike started to look a bit like this -

- except for the duff home made side panel I had, the meccano headlamp bracket, the wobbily home made rear sets and I had cheap ace bars instead of clip-ons.  All the same it was a Velocette Venom.  Well, actually, sort of.

I was still seventeen and six months after buying it I did the predictable thing and crashed it into the side of a Ford Cortina driven by a myopic holidaymaker.  I was wasn't hurt (neither was Mr Myopic) but the bike was a mess and as I looked at the damage my world crumbled.  Twisted forks, bent frame, stoved in fuel tank, mud guards etc, etc. It was an insurance write-off.  Being Seventeen and unreasonably in love, I did the next predictable thing and sold everything of any value that I owned to secure a new Geoff Dodkin frame and forks.  I learned a lot from that kindly gentleman.  That's when I found out I'd paid £500 for a Venom engine in an MSS frame that had a series of holes drilled under the top tube.  Almost nothing was tangeably original.  A Bitza.  I'd bought and run a bloody expensive Bitza! 

Where's all this leading?  Well this is a blog about restoring my Velocette Venom.  My Venom.  If I'm going to restore this bike, then given it was always a Bitza, I don't see why it should be made into a museum piece.  It could be different, more practical for todays world.  it could look a bit more like this -

It's enough to give you palpitations...

No progress but here's a lovely bit of film to make amends.

Another week goes by and I have to confess to no progress at all.  These things come around I suppose.  I did notice that I need new barrel studs as the threads on mine are looking squared off.  These are the ones that hold down the head and guarantee compression and oiltightness.  I definately don't want to cut a corner there. 

So, best not to lose the spirit lest the momentum follows suit.  Here's a lovely bit of video of a speed triple cafe racer.  The camera work is excellent, the speed rendered real and the sensation is pure cafe racer...