Velocette Spring Opener

The Velocette Owners Club sponsors an annual Spring Opener ride, hosted by John and Sue Ray at their 40-acre spread in the hills above Napa. Beautiful location, and the Rays are generous hosts, plus there’s a lot of room to spread out the motorcycles, no matter how many show up. We met Saturday morning the 19th of May for a ride of about 70 miles through the amazing countryside around Napa and Lake Berryessa – perfect motorcycle roads, especially if your motorcycle has rear suspension, as some of the roads are badly paved and bumpy in the areas where you’d like to be cranked over.

This year, as all my Velos were on the bench, I borrowed John’s 1967 Velocette Thruxton [read our story on the Thruxton here], which is a fast and well-sorted machine. I think I kept my promise to only ride it to 80%, and I only opened the throttle WFO to pass a couple of cars along the way. Still, the bike is very fast through the twisty bits, and as that’s all there is in the hills, away we went. Thanks John!  There was only one mechanical mishap, when Kim Young’s 1930 KSS had primary chain/clutch problems, which she’s been trying to sort for a while. The bike has had a bit of teething trouble, and her husband Pete puts a lot of time and effort to ensure Kim has it available for rides.

 

 

 

 

To join the Velocette Owner’s Club of North America, click here!  The club has an annual 1000-mile Summer Rally (since 1983), and set the gold standard for vintage riding clubs worldwide.