Kemenyek: Coloured Velocettes.....thats right Black and Gold weren't the only options........

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE BEEN EARLIER TO THIS PARTICULAR BLOG, I'VE ADDED SOME MORE INFORMATION....
DETAILS IN RED BELOW......

They called them "The Black and Gold Bolide from Birmingham" and if you considered that was the only livery or colour scheme they were seen in, you would be wrong.
Certainly most people remember the introduction of the Velocette Venom Thruxton to give the model it's correct title at the November 1964 Earles Court show in London featuring Silver and Blue as the colour scheme for this new model and not a Black and Gold one to be seen.
I bought one new, delivered into the Sydney agent Burling and Symmonds at Auburn, there were two machines in the crate, on the 23rd February 1967 after a promised delivery early in January....I know as I insisted on getting mine before anyone had tried to re-assemble the items removed for ease of packing ( wheels were bolted to the insides of the crate etc) and just got to the dealership in time before assembly started. There were two Silver and Blue Thruxtons , engine numbers VMT457 and VMT458. I took VMT 458 as the other machine had a dented petrol tank.
Both machines were fitted with crash bars at the front!! Obviously ordered by the dealer....
You wouldn't see that on the machine specification.
Burling and Symmonds were "affectionately" called "Burglar" and Symmonds in reference to their tough trading habits...in fact Norm Burling came up to me that day and told me the bike would be an additional $50 as they had had a tachometer fitted....fortunately I had catalogues etc and he retired to his office to fight another battle another day....
How much did my Thruxton cost?
Being the inveterate hoarder, I've the original receipt...AUD$990
Later in 1968 Veloce relented and produced the Thruxton in Black and Gold.
Export markets seemed to not be as fussy colour wise and the grumbling over the Blue/Silver combination came from the UK.
But what of earlier than this?
I've got quantities of Lou Branch Motorcycle Sales, invoices from around 1950 to 1960 and they make facinating reading.Lou Branch was the then US West Coast Velocette distributor
I'm going to share some with you in this blog and the colour schemes ordered will shatter a few old myths....
Veloce it seems would build you a motorcycle to your specification and colour as long as you stumped up the money....
With the introduction of the new Venom Sports machines at the November 1955 Earles Court show for the 1965 season, the show models were Dove Grey in colour and most people, myself included, considered these were the only ones in this colour.... but no, Branch motorcycles ordered several quantities of Venom models in Dove grey and as well they had orders of the Endurance model received in 1955 also in Dove Grey....
Left click on images to enlarge...

Not to stop there, Red and Black and White and Black Venoms were also ordered, as well as white MSS's.....

Bought new by Tom Ross's later father and called "Chuck's bike" in his memory, it features an origanal from Veloce white tank.

From the 1961 Velocette catalogue ( F82/60m/01/56), at the bottom of the page for the Venom the colours of red and black as well as white and black are offered.

1956 Spring Frame MACs in Green....

Scramblers in Green......

Speaking of scramblers....the generally accepted specification were a 300x21 front tyre and a 400x19 rear tyre....
Branch ordered these and as well ordered scramblers with 350x19 front and 400x19 rear, presumably to cater for flat track racing.....

The Viceroy scooter, a model that contributed to Veloce's demise and which they only made some 180+ of, was advertised in a red/maroon, but Branch Motorcycles had one in Powder Blue.
They ordered and took delivery of at least 12 of the Viceroy scooters.

And finally...the Velocette Venom Clubman.... introduced as a model in the UK in 1958, but a glance at a few Branch invoices reveal they had ordered special Venoms in mid 1957 with specifications that are almost identical to the newly introduced Clubman model.
Branch's vision for a special sports model was taken up by Veloce Ltd.
Looking at Velocette catalogues and price lists, the Venom was initially offered in 1956 with racing items to special order...

Then the Clubman versions of the Venom and Viper were certainly in the November 1959 catalogues, likely for that years Earles Court Motorcycle Show also in November, and on offer for 1960.