Cupboard special

What with Christmas, and a house move in the offing, and it being freezing in the garage, not much has been done to the project… So we’ll take stock of the story so far and outline future plans.

In the spring of 2020, as we came out of Lockdown One, I was able to travel up to Horncastle and collect together a load of my Velocette parts, which I took down to my dad’s in East Anglia, where I was living (and still am…) and we set about making them into a motorcycle. As I explained at the outset of the project, for the last couple of years

I’d been getting together bits and pieces to build myself a Rickman Velo, but well, every time I was offered something or came across another part that might come in handy, I acquired it – in short, I had quite a lot of stuff…

My hope was to do the job with minimal outlay too – the reasons were two-fold, one being that we were doing this to have something to do, the other being I didn’t want to throw lots of money at a project I had never intended on doing. It meant that what I’d end up with would be no concours show winner, but that’s okay; I’ll be happy enough with a reasonably tidy, presentable classic, which is able to hold its head in company, even if it doesn’t win prizes.

To that end, we’d adopted a ‘make do and mend’ policy – as far as possible, and as safely as possible, too. Things that were too far gone would have to be replaced, while, as usual, the further we delved, the more we realised was missing.

Things I still need include a dynamo, a headlamp and a rear mudguard, among other odds and ends. The rear shocks need replacing too. The petrol tank needs painting – if I decide to do it; I’ve grown quite attached to its home-done, British Telecom yellow lined finish, and faded ‘TT winner’ transfers, as it sits on the shelf in my office. The seat needs recovering as well, while I will also need a speedo. Every time one looks, the list does seem to grow!

But in reality, there’s a lot which has been achieved. Once a few more bits and pieces are added, then it’ll be nearing time for an attempt at a start up… though we’ll wait for spring, more than likely.