Duccout wrote:Only a lunatic could have believed that this would be an expedient way to build an engine, and why taper-rollers anyway? Did Gold Stars use them? Did Manx Nortons use them? No wonder Velocette went bust.
BSA and Norton went bust too, without help from taper roller bearing mains.
To be fair, Velocette were successful innovators in their day, with for example two strokes that had oil pumps, the same in principle to Yamaha's (who somehow got away with claiming to invent the system). Velo also invented the gearbox as we know it today, with a two way ratchet sequential shift, a modern rear swing arm, etc. All before the 1940s.
My friend Warwick is making a Velo KSS head in aluminium to replace his iron one. He told me something I can hardly believe - the oil feed to the head is by flooding the whole bevel tube with oil. Nobody gets everything right all the time.