1959 Velocette Venom, to Thruxton spec, 499cc. Registration ...

Estimate

£4,000 - £6,000

1959 Velocette Venom, to Thruxton spec, 499cc. Registration number JSL 562 (non transferrable). Frame number RS2879. Engine number VM2280.
Sold with the V5C, 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.
The Venom engine was delivered on the 3rd May 1958, in frame RS11040 (registration number CXR 493) to Tiffins who sold it to T. Stevens in 1959, Jim and Val had it in 1976 followed by Mr Tyler in 1996 and then Terry Foxley in 2000, he bought it from Cotswold Classics. At some point prior to 1999 (as per V5) the engine was taken out and put in this frame.
JSL was bought by our vendor in 2007 as a non runner, he comprehensively has stripped and rebuilt the whole machine, engine, gearbox, wiring, bearings, paint. There are many receipts on file for the parts used and it now is w very reliable machine, a three kick starter, one to prime, one to set, third it will fire up. It has undertaken tours of Scotland and a 2,000 mile trip around Spain.
The bike runs a Wellworthy Alfin cylinder head, BTH mag (recently overhauled and belt drive clutch.