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 recently sent all of my cammy AJSs to Bonhams and 2 days ago they were sold at the Autumn Stafford Sale. Quite a few peope have asked me why I was selling them. Well, I have enjoyed the challenge of building them, seeing (and hearing!) them burst into life for the first time, sorting them out, riding them, taking them to a few events and writing about them on my blog. But I needed to make space in the garage for the Velocettes that I am now building.

The URL of "vintageajs" for this blog is now somewhat misleading but it's too late to change it and there is still plenty to read about the AJAY projects. If you happen to be the new owner of one of these bikes then there is plenty here to read about its build. I still have 2 early Big Ports waiting in the wings ....but they will have to wait until I've completed the Velos. 

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. 

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.

Earlier this year I acquired a DOHC 250 Velo Engine and now have a Resurrection Plan. I have been making good progress on this project and will soon report the recent work.

There has also been some progress in the background on the KTT 581 project. This is not my main focus at the moment – it's the DOHC 250 engine, however, there have been a couple of events that have contributed to the eventual rebuild of the KTT. In particular, the owner of the original frame and registration dropped by my house and filled in details of its post-TT history, including a picture of Doug Pirie on the bike immediately after the race.

I have also acquired a 1936 KSS that will become the donor bike for the recreation of the original.

Further details here.

During the last 5 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 owned 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: An Update

In an earlier post – here – I mentioned that the owner of the original chassis had contacted me. He also lives on the South Coast in the UK and subsequently visited me and was able to provide quite a bit of further information about the history of the bike.

Firstly, and for me extremely useful, he has a picture of Doug Pirie astride the bike after coming 4^th in the Junior TT.

The bike now sports the number 4 rather than his racing number of 19 to indicate that he came 4^th. I don’t know how to interpret his expression - he does not look happy! It may be that having raced very hard and come 4^th he was disappointed. Alternatively, having just raced over 7 laps of the Mountain Circuit (yes, it was 7 laps in 1935!) – 264 miles at an average speed of over 77 mph on roads that are not the lovely smooth tarmacadam surface that we have today that he was simply exhausted.

Anyway, the picture is extremely useful to me – details such as the form of the mudguards, mudguard stays, whether wheel rims were chrome plated or painted etc will help me in recreating the bike.

The other information that is of interest is the history of the bike immediately after Doug Pirie’s death in the lightweight race. It seems that his brother, John Pirie, then took charge of the bike and had it road registered. A copy of the old-style buff log book

shows that he became the registered owner in June 1936 (the first owner is “Stevens”, the London Velocette dealer to whom the bike was originally delivered).

It is believed that John Pirie did not ride the bike but simply kept it as a memorial to his brother. The lack of wear inside the engine would support this,

The bike was then sold to Geoff Monty, a very successful racer of 250cc bikes in the 1950s and who subsequently teamed up with Allen Dudley-Ward to develop a business producing racing motorcycles (see here). Although there is no date in the log book it is believed to be around 1950 when Geoff Monty acquired the bike and it was at this time that the engine and other parts were removed, to be replaced by a 250.

Thankyou Mick for providing all of the above information.

Earlier this year I put an advert in the “Wanted” section of Fishtail seeking an “oily rag” Mk 2 KSS or KTS that I could use as a basis for the rebuild – the chassis of these bikes are the same as the Mk V KTT – the plan being to use a donor bike and replace the engine, exhaust pipe and petrol tank from the original KTT 581. After quite a few months I have heard nothing.

However, it seems that every time I go on holiday something turns up. I was in Marrakech when I bought the engine and my wife and I were in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago for a short break when a 1936 KSS turned up on eBay. After a brief negotiation I have now acquired this.

By coincidence, it was also first registered in June 1936 and it will now form the donor bike to build the replica of the original TT bike.

There will be quite a few bits coming up for sale from this bike, notably the engine, petrol tank and exhaust system but also other extraneous parts such as the entire electrics, primary chaincases (screw type), mudguards, toolbox etc. The engine runs just fine.

I know that some people will be horrified that I am effectively breaking an original bike, however, I consider it more important to see and hear the original KTT engine running again as it did 90 years ago at the TT. And if the parts from this bike help to get someone back on the road, then so much the better. So, if you are interested in any of the parts that I won’t be needing then please contact me via email.