Msstaken IDENTITY
More years ago than I like to remember, I was an apprentice at the English Electric Company in Preston. I commuted to work using a G2 Matchless. There was only one other motorcyclist in the machine shop where I worked, a senior apprentice who rode a Velocette. Velocette! The name is legendary. It conjures up images of super-fast cammy singles racing to victory in the Isle of Man and world championships; of a Venom breaking a world record by exceeding 100mph for 24 hours and, of course, the highly desirable and expensive Thruxton.
To me, in those days, if you owned a Velocette then you were a cut above the owners of other makes. If you owned a Velo then you were an ‘enthusiast’. Hard-riding clubmen rode Velocettes. I was in awe of them. I just had to have a Velocette…
Eventually, an advertisement appeared for a 350 MAC. It was priced at £29, so with a pocket stuffed with a month’s wages, I rode pillion behind a friend to view it. That was around 1967. The MAC had been built in 1954 so really it wasn’t that old, but what a wreck it was!
