VELOCETTE IN TRIALS
Velocette suffered from not being a truly major manufacturer with resources to compete in all aspects of sport, and being unable to throw money at every project they wanted to. That said, Carlisle'sbilly Tiffenmanaged to do a substantial amount of winning in all sorts of events in the Thirtiesand was stillcompeting on a variety ofvelos in the SSDTUP to the early Fifties.
Velo'sinterest in the off-road scene took a back seat to their racing until Jim Sheehan did quite well in a late Fiftiesisdt on a 500. A little while after that road racer John Hartlewas invited to try an Mssbased trials bike and explore the possibilitiesof producing a machine for sale. Likemost racers of the day Hartle was well aware of the benefits of trials riding as an out of season fitness thing and soon had the Mssinto the awards in all manner of local trials, plus some of the bigger ones likethe Victory trial where our picture of him was taken. Sadlythe project fizzledout when injuryand Hartle'stragic accident halted development. Cobunderstands the bike stillexists...