The Knowledge - Velocette Owners Club

made a partial improvement by moving the gearpedal outwards by fitting a spacer 1/2" thick on a
specially made footrest support shaft. I cut up a kickstart crank and made a greater offset one to clear
the now moved over gearchange lever. I also extended the gearlever bit where the rubber goes on so
to nearly touch the kickstart crank. All this gives a little more space to get the foot under the
gearchange lever but is still a pain to use. Lifting the gear lever up is better but I still have to lift my foot
off the footrest to push it down. There is no just pivotting the foot under and over as it ought to be. I
even cut away the lower part of the pedal rubber until the metal part almost touches the exhaust pipe
(smaller dia one) to get maximum benefit. I think we have to admit it is not the best design in the world
but a cobble of parts to achieve a solution which is really not very satisfactory. Just a thought though, if
we went to electric start we could throw away the kickstart crank and have all the room in the world to
play with. Or is the solution to throw away the riding boots and wear modern GP racer type trainers.
# 5644 I assume that the discussion to date refers to the adjustable rod type of linkage. I changed
mine for the "simple" reversed gear lever and found that things are significantly easier. It still takes a bit
of getting used to but, wearing full length size 11 Gold top boots, I can change up and down without
taking my foot off the rest - something I could never manage with the rod type of gear pedal.
# 5646 We believe that the is a reverse cam plate available.
# 5675 http://www.croesus-consultants.co.uk/v-tec/Images/Cam-plate.JPG
# 5655 I would agree that the change difficulty is exacerbated by the big bore pipe. With the original
set up I found that the adjustment of the linkage had to be absolutely spot on. Lengthening the rod
meant that the pedal would strike the linkage rod on downward changes. In bad cases this would bend
the rod slightly making subsequent upward changes spongy, particularly if a spell of town driving had
led to a warm clutch. Shortening the rod adjustment meant that the pedal bottomed out on the big bore
pipe before the next gear upwards was properly engaged. Any new pipe fitted had burn marks from
boot soles within a few miles. As to big bore pipes; in the Seventies a close friend had a Thruxton
identical to mine in every respect bar engine number and his having a smaller bore pipe. We spent
considerable time in each others company cutting our high speed teeth on Scottish roads. His bike was
very slightly but perceptibly faster in everything other than chin on the tank full chat in top - not
something I have ever been able to admit until today.
# 5656 I too had problems with rear sets, big boots, not enough room between levers etc. There are
three sets Veloce fitted,1)wavy gear lever with steel brake lever & steel mounting plates. 2)the Tickle
type, chrome tubular gear pedal with remote linkage. 3)the late Clubman/Thruxton type, cast alloy
levers, alloy mounting plates & remote linkage. 2&3 need to be improved by fitting Rose joints to the
linkage [if you have the later "twisted strip"linkage inside the gearbox, replace that with Rose joints
also].The Tickle gear lever always seems to have a lot of slop in the pivot& depending on the amount of
wear it can be difficult to bush the tube. Type 1,works for me ,But ,I have put a 1.250"set in the gear
lever & a 1.375"set in the kickstart. Yes you will have to move your foot about to change gear, if you
shorten the throw of any lever it will make the change heavier, perhaps its best to accept the fact that
we are dealing with an old design of gearbox, made before some of us got used to twinkle toe gear
shifting
# 5658 The results of changing the leverage are three: 1-By reducing the length of the vertical lever
attached to the square shift spindle (or internally, the front lever on the big cross bar) by half, the
motion of the shifter pedal is reduced by half. 2-In the above case, the pressure required to make the
shift will double. If your clutch is properly set up with NO DRAG, the doubled pressure required is of no
consequence, as all other makes use such leverage with no problem. All that you are doing when
making a shift is sliding a few gears along their shafts. Check it out with the engine off and you'll see
that the effort is minimal, however a dragging clutch will make the shifting awkward, heavily loading and
wearing all of the components of the shift mechanism. 3-A properly set up and delightfully light and
positive shift with no awkward articulation of the right ankle. With a properly set up gearbox and clutch,
the Velo 'old design' is among the sweetest of all bikes, with a solid and smooth positive feel.
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