1959 Velocette Venom, 500cc. Registration number WED 78. Fra...

Estimate

£4,000 - £5,000

1959 Velocette Venom, 500cc. Registration number WED 78. Frame number RS 13071. Engine number VM4509.
Sold with the V5C, V5, large history folder.
The Venom was Velocette’s hottest bike from its inception in 1955. In 1961 a factory-prepared Venom with a small fairing set the world’s 24-hour endurance speed record of 100.05 MPH at the Montlhery race track in France. In a field crowded with a new crop of vertical twins from nearly every maker, Velocette simply didn’t have the means to join the vertical twin race. They had to make do with what they had, that being a line of very advance singles. The Venom had an alloy cylinder with cast iron liner, an alloy cylinder head and a high compression piston. The cam was set high in the crankcase to allow for very short pushrods. This offered some of the benefits of an overhead cam setup, but was much simpler and cheaper to produce. The Venom was produced until 1970.
WED was bought by our vendor in 1974 as a box of bits, he rebuilt the engine with new mains and big ends and fully restored the bike. The speedo was set to zero.
Between 1991 -2005 it was stored as he was working overseas, in 2012 the engine was rebored to plus 0.040". In 2018 a Thorspark electronic ignition was fitted as well as new Amal Premier carb. New valves and rings were fitted in 2020.
He is now selling this, and his Viper, due to advancing years. It should be noted it is drained of both oil and petrol, the frame and tinware have been hand painted.