Velocette scrambler and its different variants
Recently, I bought a rough Velocette scrambler. The vendor claimed it to have been built by the factory in 1957 as a scrambler, yet I find the frame and engine numbers are in the MSS sequences. It has a small 2 or 2½ gallon tank, 21in front wheel and 19in rear. It is very hard to kick-over so I assume it has a high compression motor.
I’ve since been told the Velo scrambler has a Venom motor so I assumed the engine number should have the VM, but it has an MSS engine number prefix. Have I bought the real deal or a converted roadster? Roger Knap, email/phone call, France.
Always a racing enthusiast, Bertie Goodman (Velocette sales director and former manager of the factory race team) was keen to develop a Velocette scrambler after the company ended its involvement with road racing, in part as a promotional tool. The scrambler was developed from the 499cc ohv Velocette MSS roadster with its tuned 86x86mm engine having 8.75:1 compression ratio (standard MSS roadster = 6.8:1) and other Venom-like development. Sources claimed the engine produced 40bhp@6200rpm (or 35bhp@6200rpm is also quoted) measured at the crankshaft.
It is believed the first experimental Velocette scrambler appeared during the 1955 season (1954 is also given) and went on sale later, initially priced at circa £252, approximately £40 more than the MSS roadster.
Until 1958 the scrambler used the standard ‘RS’ (rear springing) frame with familiar adjustable Velocette rear suspension set up. During the 1958 season, this rear suspension design was replaced with a pivoted triangulated rear subframe, as illustrated in the accompanying photograph. And at the same time a new frame number sequence was started for the scrambler, which is believed to commence with 1001/35.
The 1955 Motor Cycling Year Book state the model marketed as the ‘Velocette Scrambler’ had the above quoted 8.75:1 compression ratio, gear ratios of 7.2, 8.58, 11.41 and 16.65:1, weighed 335lbs, was fitted with a 2½ gallon fuel tank (standard MSS being three gallon), had 6½in ground clearance and was priced at £252. I assume the extra inch ground clearance over the roadster MSS was thanks to the fitment of 300x21in front and 400x19in rear tyres instead of the standard MSS tyres sizes of 3.25x19in to both wheels.
The Scrambler was built in small numbers and listed by Velocette 1955-63, after which a few more examples were made to special order. Throughout manufacture, some were exported. Sources state the last scrambler was built in 1969.
Other details of the Velocette scrambler include aluminium mudguards to both wheels, under-engine bash plate and all the examples I’ve seen have an aluminium barrel and cylinder head, but I can’t be sure early models had this.
This can only be taken as a guide, as machines were finished individually to suit their customers with regard to colour options, exhaust pipe, handlebars and some state it is reasonable to assume later models had Venom or Venom-like engines, rather than Venomised MSS units.
Two examples were raced in East Anglia in the early 1960s when I watched local scrambles – both could hold their own with Gold Star scramblers on the straight but were down on acceleration compared with the Goldies and the 500cc Triumphpowered Rickman Metisses.