
LE Velocettes, Early 1950s


The excellent photo here shows a group of Officers outside the Headquarters of Huntingdonshire Constabulary with LE Velocette motorcycles, one of the most unusual – yet, at the same time popular – machines ever used by British Police forces. The photograph was kindly supplied by Alan Cunningham and, unfortunately, he has no further information beyond its location. At a guess it was taken in the early to mid 1950s, which was the period when forces began using the Velocette in significant numbers. If anyone can supply further information regarding the Officers shown here we'd love to receive it.
The story of the "Noddy Bike" is interesting. The original Velocette LE was introduced to a rather sceptical public at the 1948 Motor Cycle Show, receiving a cool reception because of its unusual nature. Velocette had a reputation for producing excellent high-performance sporting machines, so the strange-looking, low-powered, slow machine that entered the world had a massive wall to climb, but was only to achieve real acceptance in the hands of Police forces, and even this took more than three years.
The LE was intended to provide cheap and reliable transport at a time when money was really short, petrol was hard to come by and car ownership was confined to the well off. It was truly novel in that it had a twin four-stroke side-valve engine, water cooled via a radiator ahead of the engine, hand-operated gear change and shaft drive. Originally the 150cc engine of the Mk I produced only 6bhp, giving a top speed of 50mph and fuel consumption of 95mpg.
It was indeed reliable and, because of the water cooling, was extremely quiet. As it became popular for Police patrol work during the 1950s (see below) it was much appreciated for its lack of noise, enabling Officers to move about their patrols with a degree of stealth surpassed only by bicycles. Yet, of course, Officers could cover much larger areas on the machine that became known as the "Noddy Bike" than they could ever manage with pedal power.
In 1951 the Veloce company introduced the Mk II version of the LE. While it looked more or less identical to the original version, there were a number of mechanical changes. These included boring out the engine to 192cc, with strengthened main and big-end bearings, and a power increase to 8bhp. This made little difference to top speed, which was no more than 52mph or so, but acceleration was better, and the machine was more able to cope with bulky policemen and, when fitted as the years passed, the additional weight of radio equipment. Other changes improved the already good reliability record of the LE, which was in stark contrast to some of the more conventional motorcycles then in use by the Police, some of which were appallingly unreliable.
Although some LEs had been in Police hands before the introduction of the second-generation model, it was only with the arrival of the Mk II that significant Police orders were achieved. Unfortunately, the Police business did little for Veloce's profits, because of large discounts, but (as with all Police vehicles) it provided a significant endorsement for a machine that never really captured the imagination of the general public.