1939 Velocette MOV 250cc Motorcycle

Description

Velocette motorcycles were made by Veloce Ltd, in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. Velocette was a small, family-owned firm, selling almost as many hand-built motorcycles during its lifetime as the mass-produced machines of the giant BSA and Norton concerns. Renowned for the quality of its products, the company was "always in the picture" in international motorcycle racing, from the mid-1920s through the 1950s, culminating in two World Championship titles (1949–1950 350 cc) and its legendary and still-unbeaten record (for single-cylinder, 500 cc machines) over 24 hours at over 100 mph (161 km/h). Velocette, while small, was a great technical innovator and many of its patented designs are commonplace on motorcycles today, including the positive-stop foot shift and swinging arm rear suspension with hydraulic dampers. Velocette’s K series was expensive to produce, requiring selective hand assembly of the shaft-and-bevel camshaft drive, so in 1933 in order to cut production costs and make a more affordable motorcycle, it introduced a new line of overhead valve (OHV) machines which were quicker to build and required less skilled labour to assemble. The first of these was the MOV, which was an immediate sales success, using a 250cc engine of 'square' dimensions (68 mm bore x 68 mm stroke) to deliver lively performance and excellent road manners for the time.