Donkey's years ago my life took a few twists and turns that made storing a project bike (blew it up you see) not practical or even feasable. It just so happened that my Mum (bless her) had a spare out-house and it was big enough for my Velo.
The years rolled by and one day my Mum mentioned conversationally that there was a problem with the out house and that the neighbour had done something to the roof. Instantly I forgot what she said (well she used to go on and on) and it was when I visited a few years later that I noticed that the roof had actually collapsed! The Velo was undamaged by the tiles but looked ruined so I wrapped it in plastic tarpaulins and vowed to be back for it. The neighbour had moved away...
So the years rolled on again and I was able to get the engine and gearbox plus oil tank and various other odds and sods delivered here through a mate's contacts in the transport business. The chassis had to wait for a force majure and that turned out to be the passing away of my Mum in January of this year. As is normal in these situations, things needed putting in order and one of those involved me getting some transport sorted for the chassis and a couple of boxes of other effects.
I struck gold with the transport. Through Shipley.com I found a guy called Mattieu Rottreau - a Frenchman based in Birmingham in the UK for some 25 years. He specialises in moving people's vehicles about all across Europe and is a total star. If you want to move a bike or car either to or from the UK I recommend him whole heartedly! You can find him here - mrparcels@sky.com.
So here it is.
People talk to me about the value of this bike and even just this chassis . Adjectives like "original" and "authentic" are thrown about in these conversations like custard pies in a clown fight, but there's nothing further from the truth (again - see here).
When I was just eighteen years old I had an altercation with a ford cortina and the chassis of the Velo was a write off. I had to sell everything else of value I had to buy a new frame, swinging arm and forks from no less than Geoff Dodkin himself and I have the letter from him to prove it.
So on my '61 venom, the engine's a '58, the maneto's a rare competition model, and the chassis is from who-know's-when.
Don't care.
Everything's back in one place again. That's a good thing.
