Description
Velocette Venom Clubman
“Special”
First registered June 1961 with matching numbers and one previous owner, a serving soldier who rode it home from Greece after his stint in the army. I’ve owned the bike since March 2006, its condition was a bit tatty and very tired but more or less complete.
Having used it consistently for some years the time came for a re-furbishment. The engine was rebuilt by a talented engineer 3, 000 miles ago, and included a re-bore, valve, valve springs, all bearings, oil pump etc etc. All manner of new parts were included which are too numerous to detail here but includes a 12v system and LED lights.
Before getting too sniffy at the asking price, consider that to buy a reasonably complete Venom as a runner would cost around £4, 500 and to bring it up to the spec of this bike would involve considerable cost: Nova Racing 5 speed gear cluster (£2, 500), Alton electric start kit (£2, 200), rebuilt wheels by SRM with Morad alloy rims and stainless spokes (£350 per wheel), digital BTH magneto (£650), KTT rubber belt primary drive/ clutch (£505), alloy fuel tank (painted £900). Fitting would be additional, the gearbox for example may require some machining to get the Nova gears to fit correctly. Lots of stainless fastenings have been added including oil pipes made for me by Earles Performance Products.
Used regularly along with its stablemates the bike starts as easily as is possible, runs lovely, uses no oil, and has the lightest clutch lever imaginable and has achieved my objective to create a great looking, reliable, fast and easy to use thoroughbred motorcycle.
Garage space needed for the next project. The bike can be delivered anywhere within 100 miles of Chester. After a diet of Triumph twins I really wanted a sporting 500cc single and the Venom fits that perfectly. With a high revving engine, for a big single, the bike delivers performance above what the engine size suggests, easily keeping pace with other bigger engined bikes.
