Category: Gossip

Second KSS Tank

Postwar KSS tank Ah! Due to the fact that the bike came with an MSS tank (right shape and date, but definitely ‘wrong’ underneath!) the buyer ‘hapened’ to have a ‘correcter’ tank at his place and sent it to me free of charge! Thanks for that, Robert! A nice post-war KSS tank, in fairly good,…


Box #2

Prewar gearbox Well, this one looks like it might be slightly more complete and slightly more ‘oil’-tight. The kick-tarter is in the usual horrendous state! I don’t know why it is, but Velocette kickstart-levers are nearly always rusted-to-…well…buggery! First thing, then, is to get the lever off! First, I have to ‘depress’ the lever about…


Even More (expensive) Rubbish

Do you still believe in Father Christmas? When I came home today I was greeted by the parcels that had been promised to me. I bought a nearly complete MkII KSS motor on eBay in November, which I paid on the 1st of December. Due to various reasons (for example the seller ‘had family problems’)…


Two Boxes of Gear(s)

  Choices, choices! Having looked through my box of bits again, I dragged out the other gearbox in there…Interesting! Had a look at the numbers, of course not so obvious on the photos, but one is 5-5741 (which places it squarely in the 1939 category with one-down, three-up arrangement which would go together nicely with…


Engine OUT!

Look mum, no engine! Well, it was going to be a warm one again today, so after dropping Nancy off at work at four this morning, I decided to make myself a coffee, don my overalls (against the bl#%$#y mosquitos) and venture into the workshop…   This is as far as I had gone before,…


Change of course

Just look at the ‘swing’ this bike has! Really like the MAC and would love to keep this one, it’s really cute…BUT, I have a ‘mission’, and that is to do a restoration online, for whatever reasons. This beauty of a bike is just too good to start doing a full restoration on! It runs…


I Finally Found a Bike!

Today I paid my money and pays the price…for a Velocette MAC, late 1940s, so with a rigid back end and telescopic front forks…a bit more comfortable than the springers on the wrists, but with the upright sitting-position, not an issue at all! This bike is an oily-rag, sort-of-runner, mostly complete. What’s missing is the…


Looking for a Project Object

Well, things are sort of moving, but not necessarily in the direction that I had originally thought or ‘planned’! It COULD be, that the first bike to be restored will still be a Velocette, but a much later model than planned: I spotted the bike pictured above on the ‘net’ for sale in goode olde…


The Journey to Bielefed, Germany

The trip ‘home’ was absolutely uneventful, the old girl (nearly as old as me, don’t forget!) cruised at a steady 70mph all the way (not rebuilt yet, so no need to ‘run-in’), despite all the spares etc that I was also carrying in my luggage! It must have looked good, packed up like a touring-bike…


1956 Matchless G80S

Ah yes, the one and only Matchless I ever owned. I believe that this was bought in 1981; four international moves, a divorce and a number of other life-changing events have made it impossible to keep all my paperwork and photos intact, unfortunately…I picked this one up in London for the aforementioned sum (£800) and…