THE Winter SOLDIER

This Velocette Venom, which still has its original buff logbook, started its life in 1957 in the Lancashire fishing port of Fleetwood, owned by local motorcycle dealer and grasstrack racer, Nick Lancaster. It subsequently settled into long-term ownership within a ‘Velocette owning family’. Its owner started out motorcycling on a Valiant – which he reckoned was a good little bike, a ‘proper Velocette’ despite what some people say – and moved up to the Venom in 1972 after passing his test.

Over the following years the Venom was downgraded from the prime position as P&J and into a winter hack. The owner commuted by bike all year round. His summer ride was another Velo (of course), an immaculate Thruxtonised Venom, but that meant the ‘winter Venom’ had an extremely hard life. It was ridden daily through the worst the northern weather could throw at it, along with the accompanying road salt and grit. It was shoved in the shed throughout the summer months, only to be dragged out again when the next winter arrived. The minimum of maintenance was applied to get the bike running again and then the cycle repeated, year in, year out.

Eventually, that owner