The Access Norton Velocette Thread

[marshg246]

getting static from local bureaucracy.
My regular insurance guy, used him for many years, would not proceed unless he witnessed bike. After stating i would push bike from two blocks away to his office he said fine. 30 min later i wheel it into the parking. He then states its an hour process and would not do it today so as not to slow down other customers (there was no one there other than me on nice early Friday afternoon). Said to bring it back tomorrow morning (lines are long on weekends there, always!!). So i said can he at least witness bike now check numbers etc so i dont have to push it there again tomorrow? Answer was no. I left in a huff and will be cancelling my other policies with him.

Called around and found another broker able to proceed with just photos of ID numbers. We get near the end of the process (30 min) and there is an issue. The bill of sale completed by seller in uk does not have signatures. Ok i can get him to resend it signed by email tomorrow. Nope, must be original doc, not a print out. So the piece of paper must fly across ocean it seems. In fact they suggested i first send him thier bill of sale document to sign, send it back and then i sign. So thats two trips across continent and ocean. Of course first step is to confirm the guy is still alive, as we did the transaction in November and he is an oldie. Then confirm he will accommodate the request for a new bill of sale.
ARGH!

I use Hagerty in the US and I even have basket cases insured. I suspect that Hagerty Canada is the same. I have never heard a single negative word about Hagerty, and I've done everything either online or by phone. When I call, I never wait long and I get someone in the US who speaks clear English.

One valuable thing for me is that I can change the declared value online at any time. When I buy a basket case to build, I insure it at what it cost and then as it is built, I increase the valuation as the value of the bike increases. Hagerty is all about classic vehicles, so they understand things like this. They also have never questioned a declared value. They do ask for an uploaded picture of the high-value bikes.

 

[Mike40M]

Off topic, but curious. My Insurance on the Venom is $30 per year. Easily done on the internet, no questions asked. Plus a $6 tax per year to be road legal.
How much is it in other countries?

 

[Tornado]

Off topic, but curious. My Insurance on the Venom is $30 per year. Easily done on the internet, no questions asked. Plus a $6 tax per year to be road legal.
How much is it in other countries?

Wow, you sure thats not just for tire insurance ;-)

Here in Canada, auto insurance is up to individual provinces to organize. Some go free market, some go no fault. In B.C., we have no fault and mandatory basic coverage with provincial authority as the sole provider. Collision and comprehensive are optional and can be from province or a free market provider. A full 12 months, minium coverage for a bike is around $1200 CAD. No discount for multi vehicles, so my 2 bikes and a car would be $3600 a year. But I only put bikes on for 8 months and i get to list them under collector status, which drops them to $350 each. The classic Mini would also qualify for collector status, but they have a stupid rule saying there must be one full coverage vehicle to have another on collector.

 

[marshg246]

Wow, you sure thats not just for tire insurance ;-)

Here in Canada, auto insurance is up to individual provinces to organize. Some go free market, some go no fault. In B.C., we have no fault and mandatory basic coverage with provincial authority as the sole provider. Collision and comprehensive are optional and can be from province or a free market provider. A full 12 months, minium coverage for a bike is around $1200 CAD. No discount for multi vehicles, so my 2 bikes and a car would be $3600 a year. But I only put bikes on for 8 months and i get to list them under collector status, which drops them to $350 each. The classic Mini would also qualify for collector status, but they have a stupid rule saying there must be one full coverage vehicle to have another on collector.

Right now, I pay $650/year for 9 bikes ranging in declared value of $2000-$13000. They have full coverage, $0 deductible, and that includes the "Driver's Club" which provides several things but most importantly, roadside assistance. Laziness is the only reason it costs that much - I only have two riders and I could reduce the coverage on the other seven. Put another way, I pay $72.22 average per bike per year.

My car is with a different company - Hagerty only does classic.

 

[Tornado]

The only two Velocettes competing at the Manx GP IOM are doing great. A 350 and a 500 with DOHC replica engines. Only bikes running front girder forks.
FB post has two fly by clips:




Some more info:

"Both MT350 and MT500 are DOHC "Dog Kennel" replicas. Both have the SF swinging arm frame and girder forks but the 500 has a 21" front wheel while the 350 has, I think, 18" wheels. The 350 put in a very respectable 90.036mph lap today to qualify 16th in the middle of a field dominated by Honda K4s. The 500 was marginally faster at 90.267mph, putting it 26th in class - not bad for the only girder forked bikes racing in this year's MGP!"

 

[johnm]

The only two Velocettes competing at the Manx GP IOM are doing great. A 350 and a 500 with DOHC replica engines. Only bikes running front girder forks.
FB post has two fly by clips:




Some more info:

"Both MT350 and MT500 are DOHC "Dog Kennel" replicas. Both have the SF swinging arm frame and girder forks but the 500 has a 21" front wheel while the 350 has, I think, 18" wheels. The 350 put in a very respectable 90.036mph lap today to qualify 16th in the middle of a field dominated by Honda K4s. The 500 was marginally faster at 90.267mph, putting it 26th in class - not bad for the only girder forked bikes racing in this year's MGP!"

Hi. I'm with the team running the Velos. The 500 did two laps yesterday and should race today. It was on for a 100 mph lap but ran out of gas at the Creg. Both bikes are using 30 % more gas than in previous years.

350 race has been moved to Monday because of the weather. We don't know how we will handle this because we have ferry bookings etc to Europe.

 

[johnm]

The 500 Velo

 

[Tornado]

The 500 Velo

Wonderful shots, thanks for posting here.
On the Velo FB thread, mention of both 350 and 500 suffering fuel starvation in practise runs. Were they both short fueled for the session or is this a max capacity issue?

 

[johnm]

Wonderful shots, thanks for posting here.
On the Velo FB thread, mention of both 350 and 500 suffering fuel starvation in practise runs. Were they both short fueled for the session or is this a max capacity issue?

They are using gardener carbs and are using 30 % more fuel than in previous years. So we underestimated the amount require by the 500 about a litre. They can carry up to 24 litres

The 350 did not run short. Only the 500.

 

[johnm]

Well that is that. In the end they combined the 350 and 500 so the rider took out the 500. Which then broke down at Glen Helen.

So a very frustrating and disappointing week in the end. This IOM racing from the other side of the world is hard work.

 

[Tornado]

Well that is that. In the end they combined the 350 and 500 so the rider took out the 500. Which then broke down at Glen Helen.

So a very frustrating and disappointing week in the end. This IOM racing from the other side of the world is hard work.

What a shame and a poor decision to run a combined field by the organizers. With all the effort the various teams must put in to be there only to have to make a difficult choice as the Velo guys had to.

Any idea what the breakdown was?

EDIT: I take back what I said above re. organizers....having more info on the issues they were dealing with throughout the event...posting from the Velo FB page:
"
Pete Causer
Admin
Top contributor

Sadly, after a very trying MGP period weather wise when we lost several practice sessions and there was no racing on the first scheduled day (Friday) and racing on the Saturday was delayed by the weather again as well as a burst sewer and a technical issue with the radios, was red flagged and subsequently abandoned before 2 laps had been completed. The organisers decided to re-run the Junior MGP together with all the other races on the Monday, the weather forecast for the Sunday being a washout which turned out to be accurate!
So Monday started out damp and the inevitable delays meant they decided to declare Saturday's Junior as a result at the end of the only completed lap. Eventually another decision was made to combine the Classic Junior and Senior races into one race but those who had machines in both classes had to run their Senior machines, with the remaining 7 Junior riders tagged on at the end, and run it also over one lap. Unfortunately the MT500 expired at Glen Helen and I didn't manage to catch up with the guys to find out why.
Of the remaining races, the Senior MGP was the only one which completed two laps, the Lightweight already being cut to one lap and the rescheduled three lap Classic Superbike being called after one lap due to oil on the course as well as the mist coming down over the mountain.
Moreover, the very impressive lap times set by both the Velocettes won't stand as they weren't recorded during a race. But hopefully we'll see the guys at the MGP again and they'll have another chance to shine!"

 

[johnm]

What a shame and a poor decision to run a combined field by the organizers. With all the effort the various teams must put in to be there only to have to make a difficult choice as the Velo guys had to.

Any idea what the breakdown was?

EDIT: I take back what I said above re. organizers....having more info on the issues they were dealing with throughout the event...posting from the Velo FB page:
"
Pete Causer
Admin
Top contributor

Sadly, after a very trying MGP period weather wise when we lost several practice sessions and there was no racing on the first scheduled day (Friday) and racing on the Saturday was delayed by the weather again as well as a burst sewer and a technical issue with the radios, was red flagged and subsequently abandoned before 2 laps had been completed. The organisers decided to re-run the Junior MGP together with all the other races on the Monday, the weather forecast for the Sunday being a washout which turned out to be accurate!
So Monday started out damp and the inevitable delays meant they decided to declare Saturday's Junior as a result at the end of the only completed lap. Eventually another decision was made to combine the Classic Junior and Senior races into one race but those who had machines in both classes had to run their Senior machines, with the remaining 7 Junior riders tagged on at the end, and run it also over one lap. Unfortunately the MT500 expired at Glen Helen and I didn't manage to catch up with the guys to find out why.
Of the remaining races, the Senior MGP was the only one which completed two laps, the Lightweight already being cut to one lap and the rescheduled three lap Classic Superbike being called after one lap due to oil on the course as well as the mist coming down over the mountain.
Moreover, the very impressive lap times set by both the Velocettes won't stand as they weren't recorded during a race. But hopefully we'll see the guys at the MGP again and they'll have another chance to shine!"

Yes the situation for the organisers was lose lose really. The weather was really poor. Worse in 20 years they say.

The choice to ride the 500 vs the 350 was largely the riders. The 350 had a flat tyre in practice but is the better sorted bike. However it has a faring and Rhys Hardisty is a little taller than the riders it was set up for in NZ.

This is one of the challenges. The NZ rider had an accident a few months back and had to drop out. So Rhys took the ride. And I must say he was really great. Had exactly right attitude to try something different. He's a good rider and got fourth in the Lightweight race on his TZ.

He was on for a 100 mph lap on his second practice lap on the 500 but rang out of gas at the Creg. We found the bikes to be using almost 1.5 litre more per lap than measured in previous years. Perhaps due to the wet and cold temperatures.

The 500 stopped for oiling issues. Basically the 500 larger flywheels in the narrow cases are causing lots of aeration and scavenge issues. Not a problem we see in NZ with short sprint races but a big deal on the island.

The 7R stopped in practice with blocked oil feed. I posted earlier about all the RTV I found when preparing the bike. We didn't strip the engine because it had been purchased as a newly rebuilt engine for the Manx. There's a message there but really you should be able to rely on statements from sellers.

It was a tough tiring week. All the rules that keep changing. For example tyres must now be dated less than 3 years old. The 500 runs a 21 inch front wheel. Try finding a 21 inch racing tyre less than 3 years old with the Avon factory shut.

 

[Matt Spencer]

The silly buggers flattening the exhaust pipe . and on those tyres . Too .

 

[Tornado]

Got some great riding in past few days, glorious fall colours in sunshine, up/down the coastal highway and mountains.
Yesterday while thundering up one of our local ski mountains, I came across this fellow vintage rider with similar intentions....

1947 500cc 18S.
I like to think these two machine, 7 years apart in age, last crossed paths on English roads once upon a time.