1970 Velocette Thruxton recommissioning

 Recently, the care of a 1970 Velocette Thruxton has fallen upon me.  "It's just and old motorcycle."  were the wise words said to me. Is it?

only picture seen before purchase

About a few months ago a good friend told me that some old bikes were coming up for sale and would I tell him what I knew about these models. One was a 1956 BMW R50, the other a 1971 Velocette Thruxton. Interesting, as I have a Velocette Venom and a 1956 R50 BMW. We talked for a bit about the care and feeding of the BMW; slinger rings, the early frame and forks, the undrilled engine and whatnot. From there I tried to impress upon him the hand built nature of the Velo. A Velo is not everyone's cup of tea;  as great a machine that it is. Both machines were well above what I could afford however the Velo was less than the BMW. I was curious, maybe it wasn't a true Thruxton or that it had some serious malady?  In any case I put the bikes out of my mind. For now...

After a few weeks I thought that it would be interesting to know more about the Velo before it was sold on. So I contacted the gentleman helping with the sale of the bikes. We had a long conversation about both machines, I told him that I would like to see the Velo before it sold and we planned to possibly view the bikes the following weekend. But that didn't happen. As the weeks passed I began to think more about it and began to see if there was some way to raise the capital for it's purchase; sight unseen. This is usually not a good idea but most of my bikes have been emotional purchases and either, unviewed, unridden or just straight up agreements.  What did I have to lose? Without viewing it directly or knowing what the engine number was, I questioned if it was an actual Thruxton or a Thruxtonized Venom but it certainly was a Velocette and that was what I needed.

Need you say? Yes, it's an emotional thing and the thought of having a straight up runner that can be used as a solid highway machine gets my interest but good! Something that you don't have to worry about scratches, dings or dents. A machine you can run real hard and get work done and yet be different while doing it. If you want to stay with a classic British motorcycle, there are few that fit into this bill. 

With a little juggling and great deal of help from good friends I was able to gather the funds for the Velo. A few days after this I gave the gentleman a call, we spoke briefly and from there it was to wait. The waiting is the hardest part. It can play with your mind in funny ways. I was almost certain that all of this was a fanciful life ruse, but wait I did. After a month or two a he did call and said that if I still wanted the Velo that I needed to come up on the weekend. It was a sleepless night!

Mick and Maryanne  with the Velo on the day I got to check see it first hand.

After arriving I took in all that came with the bike; severalboxes of bits to put it back together. A box of documents, books and paperwork. And then there was the bike itself; the numbers matching a sister model in the Velocette registry confirmed that this was a true Thruxton. You could see from the damage that it had been dropped during it's days as a racer. It wore it's battle scars and safety wire in a timeless fashion. The box of documents was the interesting part. Many of the names were of the old first guard and the first Velocette scene! Names of people; some that I knew and some that I wished I had. 

exhaust, seat and tank added for the picture. the tank has been repainted, however body filler has been used on the right side to fill in crash damage from the clip on bar.

I've begun the recommissioning process almost immediately as the previous owner had begun to take it apart. So the first stage is to inventory what is in the boxes and what is needed to get it back to road worthy. The only missing parts are the Lucas distributor and the bolt that holds the speedo bracket onto the fork tube top nut. 

Picture of Mark S. Gibson using the bike as intended

In the workshop, getting ready to get bring it back.

The engine was already in the process of being dismantled; the timing chest cover was only held on with three screws and the distributor missing.  So first chore is to inspect the round and round parts. The carb slide was stuck and after removing the carb, I found sand within the intake bore.

With sand, I'm going to aire on the side of caution. Off will come the head to inspect the piston and barrel bore and maybe even further. 

rockers show little wear

this little black O ring can make you think the head is stuck fast if you do not remove it

the tools shown in the picture are the only tools that were needed to remove the top end

Currently the piston is on standard bore; the rings are marginal to worn. Everything on the connecting rod and mains feel smooth.  As time goes on I'll try to give a second account of my mental approach. A possible writeup of "so you got a Velo? Now what?"  -  a sort of list how my mind goes about getting to know a new to me machine.   

Ok, all for now.