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The following article was produced in the English motorcycle magazine "The Motor Cycle" on 28th April 1960 and shows again that small though they were as a motorcycle manufacturer, Veloce Ltd. were not frightened to adopt state of the art technology on the production line. I also published this in the Australian Velocette OC magazine FTDU322.

The photographs were scanned from the newspaper print and so their quality suffers as a result.

Acknowledgement is made to Mortons Motorcycle Media Ltd.

Because of the mention of newsprint photo quality , these illustrated are better not enlarged.
Hold a finger in the middle of an ordinary-looking loop of copper tube and nothing happens; yet place a piece of metal within the same loop and in a few seconds it is glowing cherry red. Magic? It may seem so- and the mysterious cabinet, with its panel of knobs, switches and dials, from which the copper loop projects could well be part of the mumbo-jumbo of a stage illusionist.
But in fact this is a radio-frequency induction heating, a process which is coming more and more into prominence in engineering. It has particular applications in motor-cycle manufacture and Velocettes’, to quote a specific factory, began in a small way by using the system for hardening the tips of clutch-plate discs; now induction heating is used in frame brazing, for fixing hardened pads to cam followers and in many other ways.
The principle is not unlike that of an ignition coil. The metal part to be heated is placed within a coil of copper tubing (tubing, for a reason which will be explained shortly) and an alternating current is passed through the coil winding. As with the ignition coil, a secondary current is thereby induced with, in this instance, the component to be treated replacing the usual secondary windings. The electric impulses disturb the molecular structure of the metal and thus heat is produced.
By heating quickly enough only the surface layer is affected-ideal when hardening or tempering is to be done. For other processes the whole component must be heated through, and so the rate of heating is slowed down. Control is obtained by using coils which may be tightly looped for speed heating) or loose-coiled (for through-heating).
There must be no direct contact between coil and compartment, or a short would occur; and so that the coil is not affected by heat reflected from the continuously through the tubing from which the coil is constructed. Further, to obviate arcing, the copper is first discovered with spun-glass then given a coating of shellac.
So far, so good. But town mains supply is usually at either, 50 or 60 cyles per second, and at so slow a rate of reversal the heating effect is negligible. The smaller the part to be heated, the higher the frequency is required, but for most of the purposes a frequency of about 400 kilocycles per second is used. And that is where the magic cabinet comes in for it is, in a way, a radio transmitter, stepping up the normal factory supply to the high frequency necessary by means of a transformer, with associated mercury-vapour rectifiers and oscillator valves.
First the transformer takes the ordinary input (at, say, 220 volts) and delivers it at 6,000 volts to the rectifiers; they, in turn, convert it from A.C. to D.C. and pass it to the oscillator valves, from which it emerges as A.C. current once more, but this time at 400,000 cycles per second. Even then an output transformer is brought into the circuit, so that voltage and current may be varied according to the job at hand.
As to the coils themselves, the shape can be varied in many ways- long coils, short loops, square coils, flat coils; it all depends on the shape of the component to be heated, and the substitution of one more coil for another when a change in the production run is made is a simple matter. The use of the apparatus is almost limitless. To take the Velocette clutch plate as an example, by the earlier production method the whole plate would first have had to be copper plated, to prevent carbon penetration, and then the copper would have been scraped away from those parts where penetration was, in fact, wanted. Carburizing would follow, then the plate would be quenched- and distortion could quite easily result. Now, just the tips of the plate are passed, one at a time, through an induction coil; the heat is applied only where necessary and distortion cannot arise.
Again, a coil can be arranged for internal heating- as in the case of a light alloy cylinder barrel which should be heated before the iron liner is fitted into place. The whole job can be done in one and a half minutes whereas by the conventional method of placing a stack of barrels in an electric furnace only six could be treated in half an hour.
Another example of time-saving? Certainly; at one time a Velocette oil-pump spindle, complete with the gear wheel it carries, had to be turned from the solid. Now the spindles is cut from the pre-ground stock, the pinion is cut in the normal manner and is bored so that there is 0.0005in clearance between shaft and bore, and the two components are silver soldered together in the induction heater. And while one component is heating the operator can prepare the next.
But perhaps the most spectacular piece of magic is that which brazes the trunnion lug (brake anchor lug) to one arm of the pivoted rear fork. The operator picks up the length of tube, paints it with a liquid flux at the appropriate place, then slips the lug to be brazed over the tube and into its appointed station. Next a ring of wire- the hard sliver-solder-is wrapped round the tube at the junction of the tube and lug.
The tube is then placed vertically, silver-solder ring uppermost, in a fixture so that the lug is within a heating coil.
Within seconds the lug glows red then- phhtt! In a flash the solder ring has disappeared , as the molten metal penetrates between lug and tube to form a secure bond.
Compare that with the traditional frame-building methods of gas torch, fire-brick hearth and consequent distortion- which is rectified by brutal-seeming leverage with a crowbar until the frame matches the trueing jig! And when it comes to brazing the steering-head lug in place, other advantages make themselves known, for now the lug can be fully machined before assembly. Formerly, because of consequent distortion, machining had to be carried out after brazing. Nor is there need for shot-blasting to remove brazing deposits as is the case with time-honoured methods.
It's interesting to see the huge size of the "electronics" in 1960..today one would imagine it was about the size of a home computer unit.

Pictures from my Archive… a frequent dip into photographs that I want to share with you….

This is a "Motor Cycle" press photo, as is the upper one, taken at the 1966 Earles court Show on the Velocette stand and the picture published on 28th February 1967.

1970 saw the first of what became an almost 15 year span of 6 hour production machine races, held, except for one race, at the Amaroo Park Raceway, a 1.2 mile tight clockwise circuit on the Northern outskirts of Sydney.
That first year saw a relatively unknown rider, Craig Brown, on his “ride to work” ( later to prove his undoing), CB750/4 Honda.
Craig led the race until near the end, when he ran out of front brakes…he hadn’t the money to start the race with new brake pads and paid the price with a retirement, leaving the late Bryan Hindle and Len Atlee to win on the Ryan’s of Parramatta Triumph 750.
Well at this stage I was still an “occasional racer”, still had my Velocette Venom Thruxton ( engine number VMT458), which I purchased new in Feb.1967 and so took the plunge and entered the 1971 event, with former ex-International Dennis Fry and John Herrick as co-riders, both also Velocette enthusiasts. My good friend Jim Day was the designated team mechanic.
Now it was a long time ago, so I can let some “skeletons out of the cupboard”…not figuring on getting on the leader board in the 500 class, I decided to “help” the VMT.
I fitted coil valve springs back in, rather than the original hairpin type. We never revved it past the designated 6,200rpm maximum, but the hairpins usually settled and valve float would set in lower and lower as the race progressed, so the coils ensured this didn’t happen and should you miss a gear, the resulting over revving wouldn’t see a valve kiss the piston. This happened in unofficial practice some weeks before with hairpins fitted and a bent Nimonic 80 exhaust valve resulted. An urgent telephone call to L.J.Stevens Ltd, the Velo people in London, UK, saw a replacement airmailed out in time. As well Thruxton’s are marginal in engine pinging, so working at a scientific research establishment, CSIRO, I found out the dye used to dye the local Super petrol ( 96 octane) we had to use.
I obtained some and using Esso 115/145 aviation fuel, normally purple in colour, I dyed some 20 gallons of fuel to the straw colour of Super..
That was one problem out of the way.
The kickstarter fouled the exhaust pipe, so I re-bent it and replated it to standard…removed the dynamo belt and fitted a broken one left lying in the bottom of the generator cover. The battery was a hollow box and no battery needed, there being no current generated.
I might say at this stage, that the supplementary regulations for this race were so strict in requiring a standard specification. There is no doubt that not many of the “production” racers in the IOM Production TTs would have complied…
Dennis Fry had an ankle injury from several IOM TT crashes in his continental circus career in the early 1960s, so needed a rocking gear pedal. I petitioned the organising committee for permission to fit one.
I also had a bent in that era to use aviation oil and so we eschewed the free gallon of Castrol GTX for Mobil Aero Oil 80. Tyres were to be road tyres and I favoured Metzelers’ so fitted C5 front and rear.
Official practice went off all Ok and we agreed that I would ride the first 2 hours we would then refuel, Dennis Fry would ride next and depending on our position in the race, either John Herrick or Dennis Fry would do the last 2 hours. This leads to an interesting incident at scrutineering... Dennis Fry fronted up with his Cromwell "Pudding basin" helmet ( you can see it in the pictures...likely this was the last time such a helmet was used in competition..)...the examiner baulked at Dennis's helmet... seizing the opportunity, Dennis replied, "Listen mate, this helmet has survived 5 crashes in the IOM TT at over 120mph" and pointed to the IOM TT compliance stickers on the helmet etc. Flumoxed, the official passed it, when in hind sight it should have gone into the rubbish tin....
With the tank capacity and fuel consumption, we had only 2 stops for fuel compared to 4 stops for most of the others. The exception being the large BMWs who also could do 2 hour stints.
The start was a nightmare..a Le Mans start requiring you to sprint across the track, mount and of course we had to kickstart, some others also kicked, other used electric starters. The noise was incredible as the 64 bikes burst into life…I couldn’t tell if the engine was going ( yes…I have a tacho and a quick look should suffice, but the adrenaline pumping, I forgot), so it was a slow start. However I quickly settled down and my lap times were consistent and we were placed about mid field in the 500 class. The pit stop was uneventful and Dennis Fry set off and soon his European racing experience showed and he was lapping consistently a second faster than me…then he disappeared!
Anxiously we waited for him to appear or news…then it came -he’d crashed heavily in the Brabham loop, the bike end over ended, destroying the rear rim and silencer and bending the frame. Dennis was carted off to hospital…128 laps and we were out….
Dennis recovered and we straightened the frame and I made plans to ride again next year. It wasn’t to be, for what reason I can no longer remember.
I perused the lap sheets and figured we would likely have done 285+ laps, this would have got us into 12th place in the 500 class, let’s put this into perspective…out of 13 finishers in that class .
Still you know what they say…the old “if”…”If your Aunt had balls, she’d be your Uncle…”
There were 15 starters and 10 finishers in the Unlimited class; 26 starters and 13 finishers in the 500 class; and 23 starters and 8 finishers in the 250 class.
The Thruxton was the only Velocette to have entered in the races history and if you want to be catty it was the only Velo not to finish…..

The 1948 Earles Court motor Cycle show saw the introduction of the 150cc LE Velocette, later named the Mk.1...there were Mk.2,3 and the Vogue to follow over the years, although the capacity was increased to 200cc in these models.
This was the culmination of Eugene Goodman's ( the brother of Percy Goodman a company director of Veloce Ld.) dream,.... the "Everymans machine" and the plan was for Veloce to eventually concentrate on only making these, dropping all other models.
Ironically it is considered by many to have been the model that caused Veloce to liquidate in the early 1970s...they spent a lot of the WW2 profits in tooling up for it..in fact the Lake Eirie press, need to press out the body banels was reputed to have cost £98,000 ...a fortune in todays money. As well the LE costing was worked out on a production run of 300 machines a week, when in reality, making only LE's the best they obtained was around 165 per week. Effectively they sold them below cost.
The photo of the LE on the show stand, indicates the interest from the general public.
The other photo shows two Mk.8 KTT production racers with the 1948 IOM Junior TT trophy, won by Veloce, in between.
Left click on photos to enlarge

Velocette sectioned a few of their motorcycles for exhibition at large Motorcycle Show's such as at Earles Court, London..... Len Moseley in his book "My Velocette Days", detailing his time working for Veloce Ltd, mentions a sectioned Venom model for the 1963 Earles Court Show, which he personally produced.
He also " ..wondered what became of the sectioned models of the LE and the various other sectioned machines...".
The UK Velocette Owners Club has two sectioned engines I have seen on display, some years back, one an iron MAC, the other a Venom or MSS.
But I am unsure if the sectioning was done by a private owner or at Veloce Ltd.
The sectioned Venom Thruxton pictured is listed on the back of the photograph as at the 1967 Earles Court Show on the Velocette Stand....the photo published in
"The MotorCycle" and acknowledgement is made to them.
Left click on photograph to enlarge.

I’m on a bit of a roll with the research in some of my files over these earlier Honda racers and find the Super Sports versions fascinating…
For 1962 Honda introduced a series of production racers mirroring technology gained from their Grands Prix racers.
These were intended to provide suitable machines for good riders and obviously to continue the advertising success Honda were enjoying.

These 50cc items I covered in an earlier blog, but form part of this production racer series...

In the 50cc class for selected sale to the racing public they offered the CR110 Cub racer, which was an air cooled single cyl.4 stroke engine, DOHC with gear train drive, 49.99cc with 40.4mm bore x 39.0mm stroke, 8.5bhp at 13,500rpm, 0.46kg torque at 11,500rpm, magneto ignition, 8 speed gearbox.

As well Honda produced a sports model of the CR110 for the road Same engine details, but 7bhp at 12,700rpm, 5 speed gearbox, max. speed 100kph (62mph), 2.25-18 tyres front and rear, 75kg dry machine weight with a price then of 170,000 yen.

In the 125cc class came the CR93Benly racer, a twin cylinder gear driven DOHC 4 valve per cylinder engine, 124.8cc capacity bore and stroke 43.0 x 43.0mm; 21.5PS at 13,500rpm with 1.05kg torque at 10,700rpm, twin carbs, magneto ignition, wet sump, 10.2:1 comp.ratio. 5 speed gearbox, tyres 2.50-18 front and 2.75-18 rear, drum brakes with 2LS front and SLS rear.
Likely for Japan only was offered a Super Sports or Clubman version of the CR93 racer, called the CR93 Benly racer Super Sports., same engine detail, with 16.5PS at 11,500rpm and 1.05kg torque at 10,700rpm, 5 speed gearbox, max. speed listed at over 135kph(84mph), dry weight 127.5kg, wheels and tyres as per the production racer. Price then 300,000Yen.

For the 250cc class, came the CR72 racer, a twin cylinder gear driven DOHC 4 valve per cylinder engine,247cc bore and stroke 54.0 x 54.0mm, twin carbs.,wet sump, 6 speed gearbox,29PS at 9/500rpm and 2.06kg torque at 7,500rpm 150kg dry weight, tyres 2.75-18 front and 3.00-18 rear, drum brakes front and rear with 2LS front and SLS rear.
There does not appear to be a directly related Super Sports road version.
The 350cc class had an enlarged type of CR72 engine, capacity 305.4cc, bore and stroke 60 x 54mm, 29PS at 9,250rpm .I have little other detail and leave it up to you to compare the photographs.
Then as mentioned before, Honda retired from formal Grand Prix racing around 1968 and it all became history…..
Data and photographs for this blog are acknowledged from “Honda Collection 1”, Honda Collection 2” (published by Honda Motor Co.,Ltd, Honda Collection Hall Museum Project and printed in 1994 by Neko Publishing Co.,Ltd, Japan) and Million Mook “Exciting Bike” the Honda Story, published in Japan 1991. All are in Japanese.
Left click on photos to enlarge

Between 1962 and 1965 Honda made four different 50cc twin cylinder Grand Prix racing motorcycles.
Money seemed no object and all had differing engine castings and configurations….
All were air cooled 4 stroke twins with gear driven overhead camshafts.
The RC112 of 1962 was a 2 valve DOHC engine, 49.61cc, bore 33.0mm x stroke 29.0mm, listing over 10bhp at 17,500rpm, 0.45kg of torque at 15,000rpm, magneto ignition, wet sump, 9 speed gearbox, 62.5kg machine weight, drum brakes SLS front and rear, tyre sizes 2.00-18 front and 2.25-18 rear, max. speed over 140kph(87mph).
The RC113 of 1963 changed to a 4 valve DOHC engine, 49.61cc, bore 33.0mm x 29.0mm stroke, listing over 10bhp at 19,000rpm, transistor ignition, 2 carbs,( piston valve), wet sump, 9 speed gearbox, 53kg machine weight, front brake a push bike calliper type, rear 2LS drum, 2.00-18 front and 2.25-18 rear tyres, max. speed over 140kph (87mph).
I have no specification listing for the 1964 machine, but it was the RC114, a twin cyl. 4 valve DOHC engine..

The RC115 of 1965 again was a 4 valve DOHC engine, 49.75cc bore 34.00mm x 27.4mm, listed as over 13 bhp at 20,000rpm, transistor ignition, 2 carbs ( piston valve), wet sump, 9 speed gearbox, 50kg machine weight, front brake a push bike calliper type, rear 2LS drum, 2.00-18 front and 2.25-18 rear tyres, max. speed 154kph (96mph).
Interestingly the machine weight fell from 62.5kg to 50kg over 4 years development with the max. engine rpm rising from 17,500rpm to 20,000rpm & engine power from 10bhp to 13bhp.
I recall there was a rumour at the time, never substantiated, that Honda had a 4 cylinder 50cc engine under development,,, amazing!
Looking at the pictures the crankshaft fits into a human hand!! The gear wheels in the 9 speed gearbox must have been really thin, almost like a slitting milling machine cutter.
For 1962 Honda produced a production racer in 50cc format for selected sale to the racing public. Called the CR110 Cub racer, it was an air cooled single cyl.4 stroke engine, DOHC with gear train drive, 49.99cc with 40.4mm bore x 39.0mm stroke, 8.5bhp at 13,500rpm, 0.46kg torque at 11,500rpm, magneto ignition, 8 speed gearbox.
As well Honda produced a sports model of the CR110 for the road! Same engine details, but 7bhp at 12,700rpm, 5 speed gearbox, max. speed 100kph (62mph), 2.25-18 tyres front and rear, 75kg dry machine weight with a price then of 170,000 yen.
Then Honda retired from formal Grand Prix racing around 1968 and it all became history…..
Data and photographs for this blog are acknowledged from “Honda Collection 1”, Honda Collection 2” (published by Honda Motor Co.,Ltd, Honda Collection Hall Museum Project and printed in 1994 by Neko Publishing Co.,Ltd, Japan) and “Motorrad Classic” 5/2000 Sept./Oct., published by Motor Presse-Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany.
Left click on photos to enlarge.