A VALIANT ATTEMPT
There is always a plan. Some plans are great plans, others less so. Some plans lead to enormous success, great wealth and kudos – others, less so. And the results of some plans can best be described as heroic failures – a peculiarly British concept, especially perhaps in the motorcycle arena. Take Velocette’s Great Post-war Plan, the motorcycle for Everyman, the LE. How could it fail to win over everyone, sell in millions, redefine the two-wheeled world and ensure that Velocette became the world’s biggest builder of bikes? You need to look at the Honda Cub for the answer. One of these machines did everything its maker hoped for, the other failed, heroically.
By now, gentle reader, you will have observed that I am chattering away about a bike which is plainly not the bike in the photos. Bear with me. Had the Velo LE’s production line struggled to cope with massive demand for a docile water-cooled sidevalve flat-twin of great complexity, great charm, delicate performance and a considerable stylistic individualism, then the Valiant – the machine you can see here – would surely never have happened.
Which would be a shame, because the Valiant offers a pleasant alternative to the other sub-250cc machinery on the market in the mid-50s – mainly Triumph’s Cub and a selection of strokers sharing Villiers engines. Should you actually want that kind of machine – and judging by the huge popularity of the Triumph Cub, you may well fancy a
