World first classic hybrid...
… or how a 1931 Velocette has been transformed into an electrified commuter
‘A classic that’s as user friendly as any scoot’
There’s a good reason few people use gorgeous 1930s classic motorcycles as daily commuters: aggro. Inevitably there will be mornings when it won’t start, lunchtimes when it will leak fluids, and evenings when it will conk out. Plus, the weekly shed time required to limit these eventualities will sap your will to live.
And yet Rex Martin has been happily commuting to work across London on this beautiful 1931 Velocette GTP – a 250cc two-stroke – for four months without problems (well, there was one problem but we’ll come to that). By converting it to run on electricity as well as petrol, Rex has turned his classic into a commuter that’s as user friendly as any scoot and about four million times more interesting.
‘The GTP was such a delightful bike to ride that I started thinking about how to keep it on the road more of the time,’ says Rex, a hugely experienced mechanic and part of the Untitled Motorcycles custom shop in north London. At the time, his colleague Adam Kay was converting a Honda Cub to electric by removing the engine, which set Rex thinking.
‘I was looking at the Cub and wondering if I could use a similar hub motor but run it independently to the Velo’s petrol engine. And the more I looked at the GTP, the more I thought it could be done.’ Using Adam’s electric bike contacts, Rex sourced a rear wheel fitted with a hub motor, a powerful lithium-ion battery and electronic controls. And because the GTP’S two-stroke is so small, and the bike has a rigid rear end with no suspension to get in the way, everything fitted remarkably easily.
‘The voltage controller is underneath the saddle with the transformer, and the battery is where the toolbox used to be. The motor came with a throttle, which I fitted to the left bar, which means you have to open it the opposite way to normal. You’ll be surprised how quickly you get used to it.’
Rex loves the result, though the bike has let him down once. ‘I managed to break down on both engines simultaneously. I didn’t realise the 6V battery [for the petrol engine] was flat, so when I ran out of power with the big battery, I couldn’t start the two-stroke. That was quite annoying.’ » More info: untitledmotorcycles.com