[Fred Douglass]

......Ariel Square-Fours, Vincent Black Shadows and (for me) Velocettes?

I owned (for about a year) a very stealthy (family didn't know about it) Velocette. It was a small, pure-race Isle of Man jobbie and its ORIGINAL "tyres" were V-shaped! Really! V-shaped Dunlop soft-compound types built for corners. Useless, with1" patch when the bike was upright. BUTT, when I slammed it over in a tight turn, and the full "foot-print" got to the road, you could actually see the front shocks compress because of these tires' cornering grip!!! No foot-pegs, raised exhaust, used the KNEES (almost) for "pontooning". Hardest-leaning bike I ever drove.

VERY fast bike. HUGE compression-ratio and accelerated heinously quickly, once I got street tires on it.

Didn't own or drive any other type of bike. The Velocette would just DEVOUR 750's, even though it was 500 cc.

Wish I still had the thing.