The $4 1954 Mac, origin of the KSS special
I guess I have mentioned the history of this Velocette to anyone who asked, maybe some even wondered if I had really acquired the bike at such a price, but it is indeed true!
When I moved to Kangaroo Island, there were no motorcycles in evidence, but the local baker did have a much treasured Sunbeam twin which very occasionally appeared on the streets of Kingscote, the major town where I lived. In those days there were no bitumen roads outside the town's three major streets, most of the roads being graded ironstone rubble, and extremely treacherous to venture on to on two wheels, in fact most roads outside the town were little more than basic cart tracks.
After living there for a few years, one of the local lads suddenly appeared with a second hand Velocette, one finished in that sickly shade of green that someone at Veloce had dreamed up. He had obtained it from Lou Borgelt, the Adelaide dealer, and it was in very good low mileage condition. But in the hands of this spoiled teenager and his mates, and the fact that it was ridden most of the time on the dirt roads and around the family farm with no air cleaner, and of course endured quite a few 'down the roads' it wasn't long before it was shipped back to Adelaide for a rebore, and then another, then a new alloy barrel, then later an iron barrel, as spares were short.
It wasn't much later that a Holden ute became his passion, and even though I was importing a steady stream of second hand motorcycles from Adelaide with prices ranging from 3 pounds 10 shillings, to maybe 12 pounds tops for a Norton or Gold Star BSA, to supply the mounts for the newly formed scramble club, the MAC remained hidden away somewhere. The family who owned it, packed up and left the Island, as I did in 1960, and it wasn't until we returned to the Island for our regular Christmas holidays a few years later, that my children decided we would try and unearth all the old scramble club bikes that had to still be laying about somewhere, and so after a few inquiries, I was on the trail of the missing Velocette.
It transpired that the iron barrel that had been fitted hadn't lasted very long, and the bike was laying somewhere on a farm, after having changed hands a few times in a semi dismantled state. The value of the last transaction had apparently been $10. When I finally located it in a chicken house, it had been well protected from the elements, but as a chicken perch, it had suffered somewhat with little left of the seat from acid droppings and scratching claws, and the present owner trying to locate the generator, which his children had tied to a post with a set of fan blades attached, and that too had gone missing!
I was thrilled to finally lay my eyes on the remains, which had somehow survived complete apart from the loss of the exhaust system, and when I asked the price, I was surprised when the owner said, 'Well I paid $10 for it, but the kids have lost the generator, so I figure it can't be worth any more than $4!' then as an afterthought he went on, ' in actual fact I have never paid for it!' To which I replied, 'Well I'll take it at $10, and I will pay the money to the bloke you owe for it if that's OK with you, and as for the generator, well if you find it, drop it in to one of my local mate's places.'
So the deal was struck, and I found the previous owner at the local pub that night, paid him the $10, and he proceeded to shout a round until we drank the proceeds! Next Christmas the chap turned up at our usual camping site with the generator, and the original battery, wanting nothing more than a short ride on one of our new Japanese trail bikes.
Even before we had arrived home back in Melbourne, I was planning to replace the motor with a spare MkII Cammy motor that I had, this of course being the desired Velo owner's special. Even the Cammy motor had a bit of history – some time previously I had advertised in the Victorian Wimmera area for any old motorcycles, and one of the replies concerned an 'Iron Mac' dismantled in a garage at Horsham. I bought it from the young lad who owned it over the phone, haggling him down from the $150 that he was asking to $75, which was certainly all that it appeared to be worth from his description! However when I arrived to pick it up early the next Sunday morning, I had to drag the sleepy eyed owner out of bed to show me the dismantled remains all over the floor of a dark garden shed. As my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, it was obvious that here was a KSS fitted with Dowty forks, I couldn't believe my luck, and the money quickly changed hands and the ex owner went back to his warm bed, while my son and I scratched around and managed to find all the bits, which I had been assured were there. The bike had in fact been paddock ridden into the ground, then teenage curiosity had taken over, and most of the bike had been dismantled into it's component parts!
Soon I had my $4 MAC frame sitting up with the Cammy motor in place, and at this point I discovered what is now common knowledge, there was enough room, but not for the late model gearbox to get adjustment, this annoyed me somewhat, as I wasn't prepared to forego the later model gearbox, and it wasn't long before I grabbed the hacksaw, and cut the two bottom frame tubes, which immediately sprang apart by 10mm or more, and as I had suspected, a little more prising apart of the tubes, and everything fitted even, much to my surprise, the KSS crankcase bolt holes at the rear, exactly matched the MAC gearbox/engine plate holes, although it was obvious that the Cammy motor would have a slightly forward tilt, but as this saved making new plates, I just kept going!
The generator was fitted to the crankcase, and clamped into place, and by this time it was obvious that about 20mm spacers in the lower tubes was all that was needed, so spacers were turned up from solid m/s stock to slide into the tubes, and the frame was sprung open to take them, then the engine and gearbox was bolted firmly into place and new front engine plates made and also bolted up tight, a final check, and the tubes were welded up, and have remained so to this day. Yes, the steering angle was fractionally changed, but I have never noticed any problems, and at a later date when the sidecar was fitted instability in the steering at moving off speeds, prompted me to manufacture and fit a steering damper. It is possible that had I fitted heavier fork springs, the damper would not have been needed, but it was a good idea anyway, and I hate to admit, the fork springs are still the originals!
A little further along the build, it was noted that the nominal distance from gearbox mainshaft to the engine crankshaft had increased by about 10mm, but investigation of the primary chain case showed that if the crankshaft sealing arrangement in the chain case was removed, there was still enough room inside the front of the case for the sprocket and chain, although it was a little closer than usual, but not to worry! Inner and outer seal bodies were turned from solid stock, provision was made to fit an o-ring to seal around the crankcase boss, and this has been remarkably effective, even the outer oil catcher ring was improved, and these two new assemblies were rivetted and then soldered to the primary case halves.
It had been noted that the chain case holding bolt to the engine plates had moved a little in the process, and as these holes are quite large in the chain case, it was a simple matter to turn up two spacers, once again improving the oil sealing arrangements, then these spacers were drilled with the appropriate size hole, off centre in the spacers (or eccentric to the original position), and this can be seen in the finished job, about the only external change that can be detected.
The KSS decompressor arrangement almost fouled the bottom of the petrol tank, but a few gentle hits with a hammer to the bottom of the tank fixed this, but it was a hell of a job to set up the decompressor cable, the cable and casing was in fact reversed. Many years later when the sidecar was fitted, a small section was cut out of the adjacent area of the tank bottom, and a new section welded into place to give ample clearance to the decompressor arrangements, all this without destroying the tank paint work which is as good today as the day I painted it all those years ago.
Several other improvements were incorporated during the build, Yamaha indicators painted black, a left hand handlebar switch unit from a Honda postie bike with the black paint removed and polished fixes handlebar clutter in the area, and has never once failed in any way. A modern battery was fitted to a modified tray, and a mirror image cover of the oil tank outer surface covers the battery and in my opinion is a great cosmetic improvement! With the addition of the sidecar at a later date, an auto alternator was fitted to the front chassis, driven by 'V' belt in the usual manner, and the necessity to have a proper ignition switch to energise the alternator, saw a Yamaha keyed switch unit mounted alongside the battery, the key accessed through a hole in the front of the new battery cover.
Quartz halogen globes, a driving lamp between bike and sidecar, a necessary idiot light for ignition, and a high beam and driving light indicator which is powered from the high beam circuit with an isolation switch fitted – all this in the headlamp nacelle together with a car type Jaeger 12 volt ammeter.
The bike just had to be fitted with an old type fishtail silencer, but as any one who has tried to fit one of these neatly to a spring frame will know, it just cannot really be done! So I set to work and made a new silencer with a depression on the inside surface and a modified and much stronger mounting system that fits snugly around the rear frame tubes, and is well forward as it should be. Very few observers actually notice this! Another minor modification on the rear mudguard mounting completely stopped the fluttering of the guard tailpiece, which always leads to fracture of the mudguard valances. Frank Musset came to the party with the gift of a new Loch Ness seat with a torn cover, this from old stock, and a new cover was expertly made by a fellow Velo club member of those years. Plastic tank badges are I think an insult on such a quality machine, so the tank depressions were filled with solder and smoothed to make way for the good old Black and Gold, and it was deemed appropriate that the tank transfers should include the 'TT Winners' bit, and so the job was complete!
Some time later, a Sunday morning church goer in a hurry, drove through a stop sign in Para road Montmorency, then for good measure did a u-turn in front of me! The resulting 'figure eight' 19 inch front rim was replaced with a 21 inch, and the destroyed original front guard was replaced with a narrower, lighter and more compact guard, necessary because of the limited room that a 21 inch tire gives, and at this time the front guard mountings were improved.
When the time came to fit the sidecar, I was faced with something that didn't seem right at the rear upper mount, so a steel bracket was designed and made up to take in two bolt up points on the rear frame, and the resulting four point fixing is quite good and very strong, I think the sprung lightweight Velorex sidecar complements the bike, and I consider the whole plot a real classic!