VELOCETTE PROJECT
‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Well, how about someone lends you a very valuable racing bike, it bursts into flames and it isn’t insured...
Rick has a burn-up without riding
Nasty moment; here I am holding Archie Beggs’ blazing Velocette KTT. I can’t turn off the fuel because I have done away with the fuel tap. The bike has no stand, so I can’t really do anything else but hold it – laying it on its side would really get the party started. The phrase ‘lend a bike, lose a friend’ is running through my head...
But I’m getting ahead of myself. How did I get into this situation in the first place?
We’d borrowed the bike last year for my partner Judy to ride at a sprint meeting, but it hadn’t been started since. It runs on ‘dope’ – methanol, which, being corrosive, needs to be drained every time you use it, and being a track bike with no silencer, kickstart or registration plate it’s not ideal for a quick test ride round the block. Last time we had to find a friendly farmer and Judy familiarised herself with the bike riding up a rutted track in the rain, dodging tractors. Still, it started and ran easily then, so it should now – and I had tools in case it needed any adjustments.
When we fuelled up, I noticed a drip from the fuel tap, which got worse after tightening. Examination revealed that to increase fuel flow, the tap hole was plugged and larger taps were fitted, via double-ended adapters, to threaded stubs provided for a tank balance pipe. One of these adapters was not only the wrong thread, but also cracked. Groan...
Having paid for a night’s accommodation, the event entry fee and ACU day licence, it looked like the bike would be going straight back in the van. But inspiration struck; the threads were the same on the tank and the fuel pipe, so why not just ditch the tap and busted adapter and connect the pipe straight to the tank? Perfect – no leaks. Job done.
But would that Velo start? Amidst the stress of running up and down with it, surrounded by the scream of drag bikes bouncing off the rev limiter, it took me a few seconds to realise that it was getting very hot for a bike that wasn’t running. To my horror I could see from the heat haze and odd blue flickers that it was on fire. Methanol burns with a clean flame which is invisible on a sunny day, but fortunately the dragster crew nearby spotted my plight and hit me with a CO2 extinguisher. Less fortunately, it didn’t work – the fire kept re-igniting. But a second go with a powder extinguisher did the trick.
The problem was evident – the float had stuck (Archie said it happens sometimes) and four jets of neat methanol were spurting out of the dual float chambers in different directions. ‘Lucky’ isn’t big enough a word. Neither is ‘grateful’ for the efforts of my saviours – the adults behind the Junior Drag Team, who had to be forced to take a few quid to pay for the extinguisher refill. Thanks very much, folks.
That ended our day and after the long drive home the first job was to clean the powder off the bike. Sodium bicarbonate has been used in powder extinguishers since the Velocette was made; it forms a coating which, when heated, releases CO2 to starve the flames. But it is highly corrosive, so after blowing off the worst with compressed air, I gave the bike a good wash with a jet hose. Thankfully, because methanol burns cool, there wasn’t much damage – just some cable insulation and a scorched seat.
I rang Archie. “Oh, that’s unusual!” he said, cheerily. “250 Rudges with engine-speed magnetos are the worst for that.” Ever encouraging, Archie was keen for us to keep the bike for further events, but I’m superstitious enough to heed a warning and decided to give it back.
I wanted to do the best I could to put it right – and if possible give it back better than before. The old bike has been ridden by a lot of people and probably had a few trackside repairs, so I spent a week with the Velo on the bench, sorting out anything I felt needed fiddling with. I just hope Archie will approve!
‘METHANOL BURNS WITH A CLEAN FLAME INVISIBLE ON A SUNNY DAY’