The Mark Sheppard Quartet

 British actor Mark Sheppard,  has four of his Velo's in the shed here in Lakebay for service work. A Clubman and a Thruxton was first sent up from his home in Studio City California. both having issues to sort out. 

Mark has quite a Ducati collection, but growing up in the UK remembers seeing Velos and always has had a lust to have one. The first bike he got was Clubman , a 'Frankenstein of a collection bits that needed work to really make it an enjoyable rider. Then he finally found a Thruxton, also shipped over from the UK, and found it had run -ability issues , not restarting when out on a ride. 

When two more Thruxton's came up,  advertised in the UK's Velocette Owners Club magazine 'Fishtail, he immediately jumped at the opportunity  - and acquired them as well, and having them shipped directly into Seattle, for me to collect and check over, before they got into his hands this time. 

Photo of Mark's acquisitions, when we collected them from bonded shipper's warehouse in Seattle a year ago - a pair of Thruxtons from the UK. We will be bringing them to 'showroom fresh' finish,  bringing them back to as close to correct and original as we can. Fortunately, with the bikes came, came a box of the original bits that were removed, when one of them was 'updated'. Both bikes look nice from a distance, but with my quick initial walk around, I noticed both have tape pin stripes on their fuel tanks, and not painted on, and on both bikes -on the right side of the fuel tank - perfectly in line with the clip-on bars - a magnet would not stick to the tank. This is a quick test I do to see if the bike has ever been down, and when repaired, the tank's dent - the impression of the right side clip-on bar , was not properly repaired, where the tank is un-dented, then repainted, and a proper painted pin stripe applied. 

If  previous owners did this type of economy of a tank repair - to a high end Velo model like the Thruxton,  always begs me to do a full strip down and inspection,  as it show me the attention to detail was lacking  -