VELOCETTE MAC
Ace Tester Miles has been infatuated with vintage vehicles of late. If anything can tempt him back to a post-war Britbike, it might just be Velocette’s most user-friendly machine…
Ace Tester Miles has been infatuated with vintage vehicles of late. If anything can tempt him back to a post-war Britbike, it might just be Velocette’s most user-friendly machine…
Mention Velocette to any Brit bike enthusiast, or indeed anyone even vaguely aware of motorcycles in general, and the response will likely include words like quality, the TT, performance, challenging and high cost. And for good reason. Veloce earned their reputation by building race-winning overhead cam singles, 24-hour record-breaking machines and fast roadburners built to a very high standard. Problem is, all that costs money but doesn’t really make you any. Then there’s the MAC.
Born in 1934, the result of a happy union
between the recently introduced ohv 250cc MOV and a longer stroke, the 349cc MAC became the longest-serving and one of the most profitable machines ever produced by the factory. For sure, the pre-war Young Turk may have reversed his cap and dreamed about being Stanley Woods winning TTs on his cammy KTT racer, but chances were he was actually riding a MAC. That girder-forked rigid machine, with its iron head and barrel, chugged along, winning hearts and minds right up to the start of WW2, when the machine was modified slightly and sold to the armed forces. After the war, what better to get the country back to work than the little 350 that had served its country so well?
By 1948, the post-war MAC had been upgraded to the brave new world of telescopic forks, and came equipped with the notoriously unreliable Dowty air / oil struts. Working correctly, they could provide a magic carpet of a ride, but pressure loss was always an issue. So for 1951 the MAC displayed Velocette’s own design of convention telescopic forks, and for the first time the engine was of an all-alloy construction; a considerable departure from the ride-to-work norm of a heavy BSA B31, for example. By now the customer could choose a lightweight, more sporty-looking bike to ride. Thankfully, somebody did, as our test machine is a fine example of this, the first alloy-engined tele-forked MAC.
This bike is quite typical of a modern restoration. Perhaps the lustrous black paint is a little too shiny and perhaps there are more stainless steel fittings than would be strictly necessary or expected from a 1950s machine, but it should ride and perform in the manner our early 1950s customer might have expected.
Now, I’m an unashamed fan of Velocettes and have come to embrace their apparent bloody mindedness with regards to clutch design and arcane starting rituals. Even so, a bike should start if you follow the correct technique, yet Velos ‘enjoy’ a reputation for being extremely difficult to fire up. Not this MAC though.
Straddling the machine and flooding the Monobloc carburettor (it would have been a pre-Monobloc in 1951, but this has the later spec Amal fitted), starting demanded little more than retarding the manual ignition a
tad, followed by three slow priming strokes before giving the lever a sharp prod – and away it went. Having only ever ridden tuned and sporting examples before, this was quite the revelation: an easy starting Velocette, wonders will never cease.
Settling immediately to a steady idle, the alloy lump wasn’t t the quietest engine I’ve ever heard. The new and voluminous design of rockerbox (looking suspiciously like an upturned saucepan) can hardly have helpe d with noise abatement, but it seemed quite happy sitting there e, resting on the best sidestand eve er made. Own a rigid Velo and neve er again will you need to worry about parking on soft or uneven ground, such is the design of the footpad. The rear stand would only ever need to be used during g maintenance and is bolted to the mudguard, not spring or clip mounted.
A 350 should be small and light, but the MAC is tiny. Weighing in at around 300lb, the little Velocette feels like a 125 to throw
around; just as well really, as the motor is unlikely to be pumping out more than 16 or so horsepower to push you along. Although few in number, these ponies more than make up the deficit with sheer willingness. Coupled with the lack of mass and directness of feel via the rigid frame, the engine makes the bike feel very lively, or ‘cobby’ as they might have said back then.
It’s all an illusion, of course, as the little MAC isn’t really up to extended motorway or fast A-road work, with a top speed around 70mph and a happy place of approximately one Hoseason (or 55mph in old money). A featherweight clutch that neither slipped nor grabbed, a first on a Velocette for me, and perfectly spaced ratios in the four-speed gearbox helped optimise the performance available, but the post-war MAC rider won’t be scaring any Gold Stars anytime soon.
Used in town or along B-roads and country lanes, as the makers intended, this Velo is among the nicest small motorcycles this hack has ever ridden. The then-new telescopic forks are far better at controlling the undesirable side effects of modern tarmac than the beautiful pre-war girders (sob) and the blend of easy performance coupled with excellent road holding and fine brakes made every ride a pleasure. Even the dynamodriven Miller lighting system offered sufficient candlepower to make evening rides feasible. It didn’t drop any oil, either; I’ve made a note in the diary, I think it’s a sign.
Two years after this little delight first turned a wheel, the range was upgraded with a swinging arm frame, the type used in all subsequent Velocettes until the factory closed in 1971. Then, in 1956 a much altered engine resulted in the sporting 350 Viper being released, with some 28bhp on offer, effectively ending the factory’s desire to build utilitarian machines, concentrating instead on their sporting models. The gallant little MAC finally disappeared for 1960, leaving the Viper to fight the 350 class alone against the other marques. Nonetheless the MAC, produced
in large (for a small company like Veloce) numbers for nearly three decades, was the mainstay of the factory, its plentiful sales subsidising racing activities and helping to get the country to and from work.
There’s undoubtedly been a softening of stance towards ownership of the smaller, lighter motorcycle in recent times. Perhaps this is a sign of increasing age among enthusiasts no longer willing to heave great lumps of vertical twin around or, more likely, acceptance that high performance bikes offer little by way of advantage on our potholed roads, festooned with averagespeed cameras. Certainly, it’s easy to see the appeal of a lightweight and nimble bike that’s simple to start, cheap to run and maintain. If you wanted to own a MAC today there are lots to choose from. In the perverse way of things, the later bikes with superior suspension and motors are cheaper to buy than earlier models. Expect to pay anything from £4000 to £7000, depending on the model; this example would be pretty much in the middle of that range.
The overall spares situation is excellent and membership of the owners’ club essential, if only to receive copies of the superb club magazine ‘Fishtail’. Weird flat twins aside, the MAC represents the cheapest way of becoming part of the Velocette family. The 350 costs no more than the ferrously plodding BSA single, yet bestows upon its owner the cachet of a bike sprinkled with the glamorous fairy dust of racing success. And it’s fun to ride. What more could you ask for?