Tag: Old Skills

GTP ‘Before and After’ Album

Ode to a Motorsickle… Well, long promised and never seen the light of day before, here are the pictures Pud took of the GTP when he first got it back in 1968. Not in a sorry state, but 30 years old already and ‘well used’, and not exactly with a very high mileage, about 10.000….


Rigid Velocette gearbox ‘field-strip’

Promises, promises… I had promised that I would describe a quick ‘field-strip’ of a gearbox, in this case the one on the GTP, which is similar to all other pre-swingarm models. Actually the swingarm models are very similar and only differ in detail from this procedure. First to come off are the footrest and gear-change…


GTP all back together

Once the kickstart has been put back together… The rest is actually a doddle. The kickstart disassembly was only really an excuse to demonstrate how it goes back together (spot the deliberate mistake) but shows how the manufacturers actually thought about the tasks of the assembly and service during the design process, as much as…


GTP Drive-side completion

Let’s get this drive-side finished! YES! With just a small job to do on the gearbox, to stop the mainshaft falling out! Basically, the lid has to be put on the gearbox: so to start with, first gear is stuck, lubricated, on the end of the shaft: The gasket face is then cleaned up with…


GTP Primary Chain Case re-assembly

Now the real fun starts! Let’s put this jigsaw back together! Please be patient, there are a lot of hi-res pictures to load on this one!! There are a couple of points to watch that, being a Velocette, it has in common with most of the other models (regarding the clutch at any rate) and…


GTP full gearbox strip-down

Well, blow me down. Four days and nights I have been beating myself up about not stripping the ‘box while it was out of the frame and at four this morning, it finally got me. So I decided that, between everything else going on here (including storms, blocked drains, trees falling all over the place…


GTP Gearbox cure…

So now I have the bike sans gearbox and drive-components on my improvised stand. And what a beauty it is, too. I must admit to having fallen in love with it, such grace and elegance, so well thought out and the solutions to save weight at NO expense to rigidity of the whole plot, simply…


GTP and pre-War MOV single-plate clutch

It is certainly not every day that anyone gets the chance to have a look at and dismantle a Velocette single-plate clutch, as fitted to the pre-war MOVs and the GTP series of bikes, so I thought that while I’m at it, I could take a few pictures and document what it looks like and…


GTP Gearbox-strip #1

Own up! Anyone out there ever worked on a GTP that really ran well?? I haven’t and in fact have never had one of these ‘go through my hands’, so it is something completely new to me altogether! Apparently the problem with this one is a ‘tight’ gearbox, which has to be looked at, since…


The Wheel Truth

Untruth #1: Only a magician can true wheels! What a load of rubbish! Could do with a bit of time: Yes, could have something to do with WANTING to true them (yourself): Yes. Untruth #2 PATIENCE of Job* required, No, I don’t need it and nor do you. Patience, my friend, is something you only…