insured

Words and pics: Mau
A shark in sheep’s clothing
A shark? Shouldn’t that be a wolf?
Well no, not in this case. What you
are looking at here is a real oddity.
This may look like a 1962
Velocette LE, but under all that
cladding lurks an automatic
SYM Shark 125cc scooter engine
and part-chassis.
The SYM engine waiting to be grafted
into its new home
Métisse – – the thehybrid
The story starts way back in the year
2000, when Alan Knott had booked
himself a place in the Wolds Run charity
bike ride. He was due to take part on his
classic Velocette, but a blown head
gasket put paid to that idea. All worked
out well in the end though as the
vintage Matchless that he took in its
place won him a trophy.
But the whole episode led to the
question of reliability. “We’re old-timers
brought up on old 50s machines,” says
Alan. “I’ve still got one, but when it’s been
stood for a length of time you wonder
whether it will start again. Do I use choke
or not? The romance of a classic is great,
but the practicality just doesn’t work.”
While at the Wolds Run Alan had got
into discussion with fellow Lincolnshire
riding enthusiast, John over the
reliability question. The conversation
developed into an idea to find a reliable
modern auto engine and fit it into Alan’s
Velocette. His LE had been partially put
back together, but didn’t run. They didn’t
want to destroy a fully functional
machine to build their project, but the
way the LE was going it would never
have been on the road, but because of
this conversion now it is.
Under John’s expertise plans for a
‘VeloSYM’ started to take shape. A donor
machine was purchased from a
wrecker’s yard in Scunthorpe. They
were actually looking for a Piaggio
Project almost
finished and
ready for the road
Leader engine (preferably from a Liberty
as it would have been more in keeping
with the bike with its larger wheels) but
the SYM Shark surfaced at the right
time. Its front end was totally destroyed
but the back was good.
John joined the Velocette bodywork to
the SYM frame using the scooter’s
engine, suspension, back wheel and
supporting frame. It was visualised that
the engine would fit higher up the frame,
but in reality that didn’t work out,
especially by the time the electrics,
battery etc were fitted. The fuel tank had
to be lowered as well. The legshields and
bodywork are Velocette, as is the
steering and front brake (the rear brake
is from the SYM). Velocette handlebars
were retained, but all the SYM switches
were fitted. The original speedo was
replaced with a push-bike digital speedo
76 NOVEMBER 05