The Velocette Venom Thuxton...when announced in the motorcycle press in late 1964 and introduced in the 1965 season I was interested. Then when with two friends we rode to the Kangaroo Rally held in Burrumbeet Park, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia in early 1966 I first viewed two of these new model from Velocette...a naked and a faired model.
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I owned a 1961 Venom at the time and later in the year sold it to finance a new VMT, with a A$360 deposit to a Sydney motorcycle business, Burling and Simmons in Auburn...known as "Burglar and Simmons"....
Due in mid January 1967, it was 23rd February 1967, a Friday from memory when I went to "burglars" to collect it..arriving early, no one had ridden it and so I rode it to the nearby Dept. of Motor Transport and it became street legal... The total cost was A$990 plus the registration.
Norm "Burglar Norm" Simmons came over and suggested I pay them an addition A$50 for the tachometer which was "an extra"....I produced a catalogue and without a word he turned on his heel and strode off....
Nice try.....
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In my rear year at 28 Astoria Circuit....
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October 1967 in the Snowy Mountains area of NSW at our regular motorcycle meeting at Dalgety...
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Sometime in 1968 having been invited to a friends wedding in New Zealand, we shipped VMT458 to Wellington and flew in, my then girlfriend, later wife, Judy and I with friend Jim Day and his 1956 MSS.
Pictured in the south Island of NZ at the start of the Homer Tunnel.
Large handlebars and saddle bags were fitted in anticipation of the dirt/loose metal roads in NZ.......
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Early in January 1969 Jim and I decided to ride across Australia to Perth and back for our annual Holidays....
Strange as the attraction to Western Australia has seen VMT458 "settle there" from sometime in the later 1980s and it is still there having passed through several owners...
There was some 1400 km of earth/gravel/clay road in the 4500 km to get there at that time and in a tropical downpour on the clay section progress forward became impossible and I had to remove the front mudguard....
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Come 1970, Willoughby DMCC introduced the Castrol 6 Hour Race for production motorcycles and in 1971 I decided to enter VMT458 in the 500cc class....
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During the several days practice period before the race....
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At the start....
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#34 still on the line. The noise was tremendous and it was hard to know if the engine had started...of course later I thought "why didn't I look at the tachometer"...
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I rode the first 2 hours and we were mid field in the 500 class when I handed over to Dennis Fry....
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Dennis Fry had ridden for 4 years in the IOM TT on Manx Nortons and his lap times came quickly down and he was lapping a second a lap faster than me..I had hopes for a higher finishing position....
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Then in the 4th hour Dennis crashed out and the bike was wrecked, end over ending several times, collapsing the back wheel and silencer and we subsequently found a bent frame...Dennis was carted off to hospital...
For some reason I have no photos of this time and on until having straightened the frame, enamelled most items but not assembled it I succombed to an offer of A$2000 from Tony Keene.
I only have the bent silencer as a reminder....
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Tony completed the restoration/repair and it appeared at the 1982 Australian Velocette OC National Rally at Bundanoon, NSW where I was re-united with it and went for a ride....
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Tony at the 1986 Australian Velocette OC National Rally on VMT458...
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Shortly after it was sold on to Perth Western Australia, possible Sid East buying it or at least he was an owner soon after...
Pictured in Perth with the bike that came in the crate with it to Burlo's...VMT457, shown in the foreground, which has been owned by John Jennings from the mid 1970's...
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VMT458 was in WA until 2012 when it came across to Bundanoon for the Australian Velocette OC Annual Rally, the 30th rally held since the first..."the back to Bundanoon Rally".. with current owner Richard Blackman.....
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During one evening we had a re acquaintance of VMT458 with myself and Dennis Fry in an interview with John Jennings before all the Rally entrants...
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As well four of the five owners of VMT458 were present....
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At Easter 2014 at the Motorcycling Australia circuit at Broadford in Victoria the theme was the Castrol 6 Hour Race...
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Unfortunately VMT458 wasn't available to be at the event, so speaking with John Jennings he agreed to make up his partner VMT...VMT457 to look somewhat like VMT458 in its race guise....
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John Jennings did the honours on the circuit , myself having long ago "hung up my leathers"....photo credit SD pics website
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And finally in October 2014 at the Australian Velocette OC National Rally in Wirrina Cove, South Australia, Richard Blackman again brought VMT458 to the Rally...currently it has 54567 miles on the speedometer...from memory I sold it to Tony Keene with some 30000 odd miles on the clock...
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I owned a 1961 Venom at the time and later in the year sold it to finance a new VMT, with a A$360 deposit to a Sydney motorcycle business, Burling and Simmons in Auburn...known as "Burglar and Simmons"....
Due in mid January 1967, it was 23rd February 1967, a Friday from memory when I went to "burglars" to collect it..arriving early, no one had ridden it and so I rode it to the nearby Dept. of Motor Transport and it became street legal... The total cost was A$990 plus the registration.
Norm "Burglar Norm" Simmons came over and suggested I pay them an addition A$50 for the tachometer which was "an extra"....I produced a catalogue and without a word he turned on his heel and strode off....
Nice try.....
Pictured in the south Island of NZ at the start of the Homer Tunnel.
Large handlebars and saddle bags were fitted in anticipation of the dirt/loose metal roads in NZ.......
Strange as the attraction to Western Australia has seen VMT458 "settle there" from sometime in the later 1980s and it is still there having passed through several owners...
There was some 1400 km of earth/gravel/clay road in the 4500 km to get there at that time and in a tropical downpour on the clay section progress forward became impossible and I had to remove the front mudguard....
For some reason I have no photos of this time and on until having straightened the frame, enamelled most items but not assembled it I succombed to an offer of A$2000 from Tony Keene.
I only have the bent silencer as a reminder....
Pictured in Perth with the bike that came in the crate with it to Burlo's...VMT457, shown in the foreground, which has been owned by John Jennings from the mid 1970's...
And finally in October 2014 at the Australian Velocette OC National Rally in Wirrina Cove, South Australia, Richard Blackman again brought VMT458 to the Rally...currently it has 54567 miles on the speedometer...from memory I sold it to Tony Keene with some 30000 odd miles on the clock...
