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Velocette people out there in the cyberspace that review this blog will have seen reference to my being editor of the Australian Velocette Owners Club magazine....FTDU ( FishTail DownUnder), so I thought I'd introduce a wider audience to it...you never know you may feel the urge to join the Australian Velocette Club!



















Getting ahead of ourselves...the joining fee is AUD$20... thats about 10 UK quid, 11 Euros, US$14...at our measly rate of exchange and you get four issues a year, additionally another 6 issues of our one page newsheet ( necessary to keep members informed of coming events and up to date for sale/wanted items), airmail and we accept Visacard....

What are you waiting for.... look up the membership secretaries address on a page below...



































The history of FTDU I'll leave to the letter, below, from John Jennings a former editor, suffice to say there are four issues a year, it is A5 format (5.83"/14.8cm wide and 8.27"/21cm high), glossy print, black and white with special photographic paper for the central four page photo section, anything from 32 to 40 pages...depends on DQ...

It is a microcosm of the Australian club and we have some 700 members with around 70 of these overseas...thats 10%...interesting.

The club has a volunteer operated Velocette spare parts scheme that has run for some 20 years and this is only open to club members to purchase...again Visacard assists with currency exchange.

I have a pretty good personal archive that is Velocette oriented and so editing the magazine allows me to share this with people...hence this blog.

I'm a great believer is sharing information, photos etc...

John Jennings has been mentioned and he and I are the only two editors for FTDU, although the club had a larger format newsheet operating for many years prior to FTDU coming into being.

I've loaded some pages from a few of the editions... cover, club officials page, letters to the editor, the central four page "Times Gone By, a parade of pictures from a variety of sources" and of course if you've been through my blog you'll be familiar with Norm Trigg our technical editor- I did a feature on his recent publication "Norm's Technicalities"...so there are three pages from a technical item he and I shared, reports on club events worldwide..club news, the usual for sale/wanted...

Left click on the images to enlarge....



John Jennings penned this letter to FTDU for the Summer 2007 ( Australian Summer...December to February....)..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FTDU!

Dennis,

In January 1998 the Velo Club newsletter was first published in 32 page, A5 magazine format and was christened Fishtail Downunder. This name fitted in with the original Fishtail UK magazine and Fishtail West, the magazine of the VOC North America.

That first issue wouldn't have been possible without the help of Warwick Nicholson, who provided the Fishtail artwork in the style of the Velocette tank logo, and 12 year old daughter Susannah, who used some computer software I was unable to drive to create the complete logo with the inverted "Downunder". Susannah celebrated her 21st birthday earlier this year - how time flies!

I should also mention the vital role that Mick and Colleen Tesser have played as printers of the magazine, and the help of our current editor Dennis Quinlan who was a regular contributor of photographs from that very first edition. Happy tenth birthday FTDU.

Regards

John Jennings