DODKIN ON VELOCETTES
Velocette sage and former top-class tuner Geoff Dodkin recalls how the meticulous preparation and empirical learning processes of racing improved the breed
Velo sage Geoff Dodkin on how racing moved the marque forward
Geoff Dodkin’s shop at East Sheen on London’s South Circular Road was, for many years, a magnet for Velocette single owners. A dealer for the Hall Green marque, Dodkin made his name nationally by successfully entering tidily-prepared Velos in long-distance Production races and marketing his own line of performance goodies. The shop continued to cater for Velocette owners after the factory closed in 1971, although it also took on an MZ dealership. Geoff retired to the Cotswolds in 1992 but even today a proven link between his name and a sporting Velocette single will always enhance its value.
Always a man for getting details right, Geoff recalls that he learned a lot during his time in the Royal Air Force. At the age of 20 he had to sign forms to say that aircraft engines had been tested and passed as OK. “That was a lot of responsibility for a young man,” he says.
His entry to the motorcycle trade was at L Stevens Ltd,
London’s biggest Velocette dealer, where he says he gained further valuable experience handling service and repairs on the water-cooled LE flat twin, including the police fleet. Despite being intended as a people’s utility bike, it was a technically challenging design, especially in its early form, and ex-factory man Tommy Mutton joined Stevens to assist. “I learned from him how a racing mechanic works,” Geoff says. “He was a master of his craft.”
Painstaking thoroughness is essential for racing success, and endurance events are especially demanding, calling for reliability as much as performance. The Dodkin team’s record included victory in the 500cc class at the 1966 500mile Brands Hatch GP d’endurance, and six 500cc second places in the Thruxton 500 and the Silverstone 1000km, all run under strict Production class rules. Dodkin’s Velocettes also took second place overall in the 1965 Barcelona 24 Hour marathon, where rules were more relaxed, and runnerup places in the 1967 and 1968 500cc Production TTS. The main opposition to Velocette’s Venom ohv high-camshaft single, evolved from a 1930s design, was from Norton and Triumph twins, while Dodkin was also up against other Venoms prepared by more seasoned entrants.
“Because it was a production machine, it was a question of working around the weaknesses,” Geoff says. “On the Velocette that meant the valve gear, which had to be made lighter to reduce load on the valve springs. You had to make conscious choices about the best way to go, and always
‘WITH A PRODUCTION MACHINE, IT WAS A QUESTION OF WORKING AROUND THE WEAKNESSES’
look at lessons from the previous race. Sometimes we learned the hard way and one thing about racing is that it makes you very philosophical – it’s no use whinging!
“I liked to have my bikes ready in good time, by mid-march at the latest, allowing time to see how they performed compared with the previous year. Attention to detail was very important but you also needed good riders who understood tactics.
“Tom Phillips was really good and could have been on the very best bikes, but he stuck with me. He recommended Dave Croxford for the 1966 Brands race. When we asked him, Croxford agreed to ride if he could have a try-out at Brands. He liked it and said it was like a Matchless G50, being a bit light at the front end. I told him that if he overrevved it he’d break it, and he listened. That kind of rider was good to work with.
“You could say an endurance race starts with the rule book. You have to interpret the rules as favourably as possible and sometimes exceed them when you see that other people are. I can remember Doug Hele (whose factoryaided Nortons and Triumphs raced against Dodkin) with sheet after sheet of paperwork he produced to circumvent certain rules. We were naive for the first two years (19591960), running a standard Venom just put together correctly, but we got good finishes.” His riders then were Peter James and Motor Cycle staffer Vic Willoughby.
“Speeds went up a hell of a lot over the following years, because we learned how to get more power as reliably as possible, as did everyone else.
“The Norton Dominator 88 Dennis Greenfield and Fred Swift beat us on in 1960 had colossal acceleration. We were neck-and-neck with them and then we saw them have to change the tank, but they regained the lead. We later heard about Hele’s Domiracer development... we just accepted such things.” Castle Combe hosted the 1965 500-miler, as
‘AN ENDURANCE RACE STARTS WITH THE RULE BOOK, WHICH YOU HAVE TO INTERPRET AS FAVOURABLY AS POSSIBLE’
Thruxton’s surface had deteriorated badly.
“We had a peculiar problem that year. The engine started misfiring early on, but you couldn’t bring a bike in for repairs in the first quarter-hour. We thought it might be the magneto, but by carefully listening to the engine note we decided a fuel problem seemed more likely. We signalled for Ellis (Ellis Boyce, who with co-rider Phillips had taken third overall at Thruxton in 1962) to turn the petrol on and off. Turning it off made the engine run better, confirming a flooding problem. It turned out that the washer held by a pin under the float bowl tickler spring had worn, letting the tickler drop against the float and cause constant flooding. It was the one thing I hadn’t checked. Ellis Boyce was a tough rider but after a Triumph rider lost it in a big way in front of him and went up in the air, his times dropped. Riders are affected by that sort of thing.”
That year the 500cc class was won by the new racedeveloped Venom Thruxton model prepared by Reg Orpin, manager of L Stevens. Magneto trouble caused another disappointment for Dodkin in the 1967 500-miler at Brands Hatch, when Phillips and co-rider Reg Everett only managed fourth in their class.
“The press called our BTH magneto obsolete; they didn’t know it had been specially produced for us by BTH, who I considered better than Lucas. But it still let us down.”
Geoff liked 24-hour races best, enjoying the heightened and multi-faceted challenge they presented. After his
learning year at the annual Barcelona day and night marathon on the twisty, hilly Montjuïc circuit in 1964, in ’65 Boyce and Phillips took second place in the over-500cc class behind the 650cc Dresda Triton of Dave Degens and Rex Butcher.
Geoff explains that the more flexible rules in Spain permitted him to make more modifications in the pursuit of better reliability, such as boosting valve gear lubrication and rubber-mounting the ammeter.
“The Spanish teams really bent the rules,” he smiles. “When a leading two-stroke rider came off I think they replaced most of his bike. We just accepted that.”
Geoff would have loved to have won the 500cc class of 1967’s inaugural Production TT, but Keith Heckles, the rider of his Venom Thruxton, had to settle for second place behind Manx rider Neil Kelly on an Orpin-entered Thruxton.
“Neil’s was literally a works bike with lots of engine tweaks. We were over-geared – a big mistake – and a slight gearbox fault meant that it sometimes dropped out of gear. But I take responsibility for the failure. It wasn’t Heckles’ fault. I thought he was a slightly better TT course rider than Kelly.” Merseysider Heckles had already finished second in the 1966 Manx GP.
A Dodkin bike took second place again in the 1968 Production TT, finishing behind Ray Knight’s Ron May-prepared Triumph. Things had not started well between Geoff and his rider John Blanchard.
“He took one look at the Avon tyres and said we should be on Dunlops. I said all my riders were perfectly happy on Avons and it wouldn’t work. But we changed over and I told him: ‘If it goes through a hedge, it’s your fault’.
“He came in after one lap of practice looking pale and agreed to race on Avons.” Geoff believes that creating a Thruxton MKII with more modern, lighter cycle parts could have given the single a longer lease of competitive life.
“I told Bertie Goodman (the boss of Veloce Ltd) that we needed a lighter frame. He said it wasn’t possible, as money was in short supply. But I know that Ken Sprayson of Reynolds did design a lightweight frame envisaged for production with 18-inch wheels.
“Everyone loves the Thruxton now, but people don’t realise that by 1969-1970 it was difficult to sell. It was expensive and Honda had started offering the fours motorcyclists had dreamed of, which represented good value for money.” After racing the Velocettes I was talked into running an ex-works Norton Commando, but I thought it was a little rudimentary compared with a Velocette.” Following the demise of Veloce Ltd in 1971, Dodkin’s dealership sold Honda and MZ. Geoff, who sadly lost his wife Esmé four years ago, has an active mind and reads avidly. His particular passion is studying great achievements in the history of motor sport.
Summing up the philosophy that he applied to his racing, Geoff says: “I don’t claim to have been a great engineer. But if you read about any successful people in either the motorcycle or car world, it all comes down to detail – and we can all learn from that.”
‘I DON’T CLAIM TO HAVE BEEN A GREAT ENGINEER, BUT LOOK AT ANY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE AND IT ALL COMES DOWN TO DETAIL’