Pleasures of Velocetting Are Upon Me!

Finally have my '54 Velocette MSS up and running. Been a struggle for two months since importation from the old world. Sticking/grabbing clutch issues plaguing any attempt at moving bike under its own power. Had done all the setup procedures in the "Redbook", followed much advice from those on the Velo forums and FB pages. Found a few parts there were not correct and replaced. Nothing seemed to be helping. Then late last week I was standing in a line for a motorcycle film festival and a complete stranger started asking me about my Velocette emblazoned t-shirt. After hearing my troubles with the bike she said I needed to contact a guy out in Chilliwack BC (some 2 hours away from me) as he had at least 7 Velocettes. Well, got his number and after a long chat on the phone, I had a set of new things to check into. One of which, the clutch steel plates for flatness. They all looked fine by eye and when placed against each other, but when I put them on a granite countertop in kitchen (Wife's away ;-), and pressed down on one edge the opposite edge would lift very slightly. All three plates did this, one worse than the others. Managed to gently bend them, bit by bit, against the countertop corner, working my away around 360 degrees of each plate until no more lifting was seen. All back together and bike fired up first kick, no sign of spinning rear wheel on CS in neutral, no stumble/stalls when applying brake and/or clutch with bike in neutral. Selecting 1st, clutch in, still no sudden shudder to move with engine stumbling. Pulling away she went quite nicely. Spent a good 30 or 40 min toodling around neighbourhood checking things out. Seems to sputter just off idle position on throttle....perhaps the Amal Primer carb needs a different pilot jet. Also, very fussy trying to select neutral...takes the lightest of pressure on lever to get neutral...too much and into next gear, too little and no change at all. Wondering if there is a weak spring on the detent or something... Some pics from first outing around the 'hood today....

Velos are good bikes but even for an experienced Brit bike rider they are a curious breed. The clutch is certainly a bit different.

Great to hear you're up and running

Wonderful piece of machinery. Congrats on getting the clutch sorted.

I was so over the moon having the clutch sorted, I'd overlooked mentioning the bike fired up from cold first attempt, choke on and tickled. Then 2 or 3 starts later on when warm all pretty much first solid attempts, as long as I had the piston at past compression. Previous days were not nearly as successful. Perhaps I had the bike pointing to Hall Green yesterday

Nice!

Slick

Glad you got the clutch sorted Tornado, although I’m surprised the plates were distorted as it looks as though you have the Kevin Thurston clutch fitted (http://www.kttservices.co.uk/Clutch_Belt_Drives_-_Road.html) which I heard was supposed to be bulletproof. For those who don’t know, he manufactures a belt drive primary and clutch which utilizes Yamaha R1 Kevlar clutch friction plates.