Velocette Model A 250cc

By the early 20s Veloce had developed an excellent two-stroke machine – well engineered and certainly a more refined product than the offerings from their competitors with it's mechanical oil pump, which was years ahead of the normal petroil mix system of the time. This together with a rigid semi cradle frame made it an expensive machine to produce, and only the more financial discerning buyer was prepared to own a Velocette!

Veloce soon realised that a much cheaper machine would appeal to the general money strapped public of the time, and designed a much cheaper product which they designated the Light 250 and even this all chain machine, with a crankcase induced oiling system and 3 or 2 speed gear box, and surprisingly, a much better new design of mudguard replacing the veteran items, the 'B' was still considered expensive. So an even cheaper model was cobbled up with a 2 speed gearbox and amazingly, reverting to belt drive! This was the 'A' and it sold for 42 Pounds, 3 Pounds less than the 'B'. A measure of it's popularity was that very few of them were sold, even though 3 Pounds probably represented about 2 weeks wages for the buyers that it targeted, and they were dropped from the range.

This then is an example of 'A' for which I pursued parts for many years, making anything that I couldn't find, the unique heel operated rear brake pedal one such item. As sometimes happens, by the time I had a complete machine, I had also acquired most of two of the more expensive machines – a 1924 EL3 Ladies' and a 1924 GS Sports, and so the 'A' was stored and remains unfinished to this day!