WELCOME to my blog about restoring vintage overhead camshaft AJS and Velocette motorcycles

 

Apologies to anyone that has come to this page expecting to see exclusively vintage AJS motorcycles .....scroll down the page a bit and you will find plenty of them. However, I ran out of OHC AJSs to restore and I'm now working on early cammy Velocettes.

In 2023 I started the restoration of 2 early Velocette KTTs plus another Mk 1 OHC cammy special - a few details about each of these bikes can be found here and here. 

Quite a lot of work has been done on these bikes over the past 2 years and the INDEX PAGE provides links in chronological order of the project so far.

I have 3 rolling chassis up together - see here - many smaller details - saddles, tanks, steering dampers, steering locks etc have been sorted out and clutches, gearboxes and positive stops for the 3 bikes have been rebuilt. The engine of KTT 305 has been completely rebuilt with many new parts and I'm now working on completing the dry build - oil/fuel lines, cables, chains and chainguards etc...

I'll report progress on that soon but, in the meantime, I now have the petrol tank of KTT 581 in my workshop.

Although it wears plenty of its 90 years history it is in remarkably good condition.

I have done some preliminary work on the engine - reported here, but I am not actively working on this project yet - I have my hands full with the existing 3 project bikes. However, I have been able to unearth more of the history of KTT 581 and at least I now have a plan for this upcoming project - details here.

During the last 4 years I have posted quite a lot of information and to aid navigation the "Labels" section on the right side of this page lists the various projects.

The labels marked "INDEX" give a link to a page that provides a complete list and links to all of the separate sub-projects related to that main project.

Alternatively, scroll down this page and see what's here...

When I started this blog I already owned (and still own) a 500cc AJS R10

that I've been riding for many years and wanted an early 350cc bike. I bought one at a Bonhams auction; this is what I brought home....

....a bit of work was needed to bring it back to life 

Full details of the restoration can be found here.

During the restoration of the K7 I figured that I could put an early overhead camshaft Velocette cylinder, cylinder head and cambox onto the crankcases of an AJS 350cc engine from 1931, convert it to chain-driven OHC and make an engine that looks like a K7 but has a Velocette top-end. I had a 1928 350cc AJS sidevalve that I had bought on eBay and used that to create the AJcette ....giving credit to both manufacturers.

It looks pretty similar to the K7 and to demonstrate that there really are 2 bikes, here they are both together.

Details of the AJcette project can be found here.

I have quite a lot of early Mk1 OHC Velocette parts and after completing the AJcette I decided to use some of these to make a replica of a one-off bike that AJS built in 1929/1930 for an attempt on the world speed record. The original is a huge V-Twin beast that started out with a naturally-aspirated engine but, having failed to gain the record, was supercharged ...and again failed. The bike ended up in Tasmania for many years and, after being repatriated to the UK and restored, it is now in the National Motorcycle Museum.

This is what the original looked like:

and this is my recreation.

 

 

Like the AJcette, the V-Twin uses Mk 1 OHC Velocette cylinder components. The full story of how this bike was built can be found in the links here.

There is also a 14 minute edited Youtube summary of how these bikes came about here and a longer unedited version here.

In January 2022 I started the restoration of a 1933 AJS Trophy Model

and this was completed in March 2023.

 

The Index Page for this project can be found here.

I also reported briefly on a couple of my other projects ....vintage OHV Nortons

 and putting a Marshall supercharger onto my 1934 MG PA

 

I hope you find something of interest.

KTT 581, Doug Pirie and the 1935 TT

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I acquired the engine of KTT 581 at auction in February this year and started work on it. This preliminary work is a prelude to a proper strip and rebuild as I don’t want to be distracted from the current Velo projects – I’m finding that building/rebuilding 3 bikes simultaneously is quite enough!

I now have the petrol tank in my workshop and I’m very pleased to report that, apart from the external surface rust that is visible on the outside, the inside of the tank shows virtually no corrosion. I have cleaned up the outside carefully and polished it with a high-quality wax to preserve it.

The paint is original and a small graze on the left side of the tank

would appear to have resulted from a tumble …but more of that below. The filler cap is original.

After putting a “WANTED” advert into Fishtail, the Velo Owners Club magazine, the owner of the original frame (at least part of it) and oil tank contacted me. He had been looking for the engine for some years and, in its absence, has built another engine into the frame and, I understand, the bike is just about completed.

Although I haven’t seen the original frame, he told me that it has a McCandless swinging arm conversion. These were developed by Rex McCandless and his brother, Cromie, from Ulster and are credited with the creation of the Norton Featherbed. In the 1940s, the conversion was applied to other marques of bike and involved removing the rear rigid frame section and replacing it with a sprung “swinging arm”.

The origins of Velocettes swinging arm are different, however, as they had applied the same principles much earlier in the 1930s – this article by Dennis Quinlan is well worth reading.

Anyway, the discussion confirmed what I had suspected about the early racing history of the bike. The Velocette works records show that the bike left the factory on the 28^th May 1935 – 90 years ago - and was delivered to “Stevens, London” for a “Mr Pirie”

Stevens refers to L. Stevens, a major Velocette agent in the Goldhawk Road in London at that time and Mr Pirie is the customer that had bought the bike. The frame and gearbox numbers are also given in the records.

Mr Pirie – Doug Pirie was a 28 year old architect from North London that had been competing successfully in the Amateur TT (forerunner of the Manx GP) since 1929. Details of his race history can be found on the Isle of Man TT website. He raced a variety of bikes – Velocette, Norton, Excelsior, Scott and New Imperial during his racing career and had 3 wins in total including 2 first places on Velocettes in the 1930 and 1931 Junior races and on a Norton in the Senior in 1934.

Acknowledgment to imuseum.im

On the 17^th June 1935 he competed in the TT (not the Amateur TT) on a Velocette and came 4^th at an average speed of 77.69 mph; this is 3 weeks after acquiring KTT 581. I can only find one photograph of Doug Pirie in this race and it can be viewed here; unfortunately copyright restrictions preclude me from reproducing it on my blog without paying a lot of money.

This story does not have a happy ending; Doug Pirie was killed in the Lightweight race on a New Imperial 2 days later. A summary of this tragic accident can be found here.

I understand from the owner of the frame that the bike was in the possession of Doug Pirie’s brother, John, until 1971. I do not when the bike was stripped or how the various parts became separated.

So, what is the plan? I have the complete engine, the petrol tank and the exhaust pipe and I am unlikely to be able to reunite these parts with what remains of the rest of the bike.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the engine has no discernable wear and has not been stripped since it left the factory. I suspect (although I obviously can’t be sure) that it has not run since it came off the Glencrutchery Road in Douglas at the end of the Junior race in 1935.

The exhaust pipe shows scrape markings which evidence enthusiastic, “cranked-over” cornering

and, as I mentioned before, the tank has a witness mark on the left side of having been “down the road” albeit reasonably gently.

Although the engine will be stripped, checked and rebuilt (I am not expecting to have to do much except a small repair on the piston and a thorough clean) the exhaust pipe and tank will be preserved as they are.

The original frame for the Mk V KTT is the precursor to the Mk II KSS (and KTS) chassis. I am not so familiar with earlier pushrod Velos (mine are a more recent Venom and Thruxton) but I have been informed that the MSS also has the same frame.

I am therefore on the lookout for any of these models that comes up for sale; a 1935 project bike would be perfect as that would reflect the original date of manufacture of KTT 581 and to rebuild the parts that I have into a reincarnation of the original bike.