This immaculate Thruxton was assembled in 1972 out of parts by Aerco, Jig and Tool Works who bought the remaining Velocette stock just after the demise of the factory in 1971. It was finished off and inspected by Reg Orpin who was general manager of Velocette main dealer L. Stevens in the Goldhawk Road, London and who had managed to get hold of enough parts to make 7 Thruxtons. This is the 7th, hence VMT 7/ LS. It has been on Ray Thurston’s Thruxton register for many years.
The nice bit of this story is that Reg Orpin wasn’t ‘just’ a shop manager but a well-known racing engineer who came up with the idea of making the Thruxton as a race/ road machine in the first place. He built the prototype with parts supplied by the factory, and he then persuaded Bernie Goodman of Veloce to put it into production. So, Reg built the first Thruxton and he ‘built’ this – one of the very last.
Subsequently the bike has only done 6500 miles, and this is almost certainly genuine because when the renowned Ashley Pople renovated the speedo, he said that this is definitely the original mileage as the speedo had not been opened before.
The bike was fully mechanically and cosmetically restored by well-known Velo expert Tony Mortimer and has a rewound magneto. All parts except nuts and bolts are original and all of the receipts for this work are retained. Since then, the previous owner only rode the bike 100 miles in 10 years!
The only non-standard addition is the reverse V-shaped gear lever which gives 1st gear down, and an improved VOC gear pedal adjuster which is inside the gear box cover. The original rear set gear change comes with the bike as do various spares and the original service manual and spare parts book stamped L. Stevens.
It would be hard to find a better one!
