Silence please!
Yet Eugene and Percy Goodman, sons of the founder of Veloce, John Goodman, staunchly believed that sporting singles alone could not sustain the company indefinitely, nor could the utilitarian GTP two stroke. During WW2, Velocette production was restricted to the wartime MAF model, so there was some time to think ahead to the days when normal service would be resumed.
Eugene Goodman had sketched early concepts of what would become the LE (which he referred to as the Motorcycle for Everyman) during the ‘thirties, and Phil Irving frequently added his thoughts before he departed for Vincent-HRD, but it was Charles Udall who converted the growing paper file into proper working drawings to enable production estimates to be undertaken. As early as the British winter of 1944-45, a hand-built prototype of the LE (“Little Engine”) was nipping around the Velocette works at Hall Green, Birmingham, and in almost every respect, it bore no resemblance to any previous model. The stated aim was to attract new customers – rather than existing or traditional motorcyclists – to the market, and to achieve this, much of the orthodox thinking had to be abandoned. In its original form, this unusual-looking creation strayed from convention in order to satisfy the aims
In its original form, this unusual-looking creation strayed from convention in order to satisfy the aims of the project, which in no particular order included; weather protection, clean running, ease of starting, quietness, long service intervals, ease of maintenance (particularly for the non-technically minded), luggage capacity, economy of operation, easy cleaning and long overall life.
The heart of the mater was the frame, or rather, chassis; a single unit comprised of pressed 22-gauge steel sections welded together, containing compartments for the petrol tank, battery (accessible by unbolting the saddle springs and tilting the seat forward) and tool box, and into which the unit comprising the engine, transmission, final drive and rear suspension was slotted. The 1.25 gallon (5.6
