New 50 year old race project

Chris said:
So far I haven't been able to find a photo of the Mick Grant Jim Lee Goldstar.
However I have found a photo of the
Eric Stanbra velocette. He was Jim & Mick Grants mechanic 70/ 71 & as a reward Jim made him a frame for his velo. This frame was nothing like the frames made for Stan Stevens the Velocette dealer. One of which Mick used with his Velocette engine & started the association with Jim Lee. This one was similar to the Jim Lee Commando frames.
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A chap called Cliff Ransley had, or has, a Jim Lee Velo. Do you know him Chris ?
 
I know Micks Jim Lee Velo came back to the UK after being in Canada for 30 years where it was raced a lot. Somewhere I have the name of the man who owns it. Is it Cliff?
What I didnt know is Jim made the frames for Stevens & gave Mick one. It looks similar to my 8 valve but has lowers seat rails & an extended Velocette swinging arm, thats now been fully rebuilt.
Nice piece by the yorkshire ferret about a group of velocette racers. In fact lots of great blogs but hard to find them all.
 
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Hi Chris, I think this Velo may have a Jim Lee frame, it is a 4 valve and was built by the father of the guy that write the Yorkshire Ferret blog
JL 4v Velocette.jpg
 
Wow Ralph
& twin discs to boot. Could well be, although others in that group built frames. It was a fascinating group, lots of little snippets but few clear photos.
Im enjoying the search though.
 
Beautiful bike! Is that a Weber carb on the Velocette? Often wondered why you don't see more Webers on twins! Can't be that hard to match up and no linkage or twin cable to mess with.
 
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It's a couple of Gardners Gene. Nigel Hall Smith ran Webbers on his 8 valve Triton. He said that they never stick unlike his Amals. Easy to set up & didnt go out of sync. Problem for me was fitting one between the top rails!
 
Chris as far as I can find out, Eric and Shaun worked together on the project, and it is a Weber, that seemed to cause Shaun more problems than the 4 valve when he wanted to race with the classic club back in the day, i believe they would allow it now though.
 
My bad thats a beautifully crafted alloy shield! I can see the weber behind it. It looked like a pair of Gardeners. Nige ran his weber from 1996.
 
Chris said:
View attachment 101840View attachment 101841View attachment 101842
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Chris said:
The engine is from a racebike 750cc spec unknown.
The 5 speed Quaife is fully rebuilt
Front end will be Commando length forks as the headstock length is longer than the Featherbed & used a special Jim Lee cast iron dropped down top yoke. I have a Norvil front end caliper & disc. The rear wheel is a Triumph conical which I have a Don Pender finned job to make it look like the Manx rear wheel it should be. The tank has patina ie it's well dinged.
The rubber mounts for the engine are actually featherbed swinging arm bushes.
When I strip the frame I probably wont find any clues as Jim didnt number his frames but it is a well worn warhorse. I've made no progress with finding any history on this frame
However
I have through a lovely gentleman called John, traced the whereabouts of the Mick Grant Jim Lee Commando. It is the green bike in the earlier Photo. John says it hasn't been on track since the 80s & is in poor condition. The bike went from Mick to Eric Houston (April 72) then via Alan Duffus, Jack Gow & Stuart Adam's to the current owner.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Stenny
That's great news! Love to see period Commandos, especially special frame jobs.
 

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