Lucas ATD "47503" with steel gear: value?

[Rex]

Sure would, but to be fair those two bikes weren't aimed at the same market when they were new.
BSA would have never even dreamt of attempting to lap Montlhery at over a 100mph for 24 hours on a B33 way back then.

[Worty]

So far, I've had three fibre gears shred and one ATD fall apart.  This resulted in the Berg's rebuild as, despite my best efforts, I couldn't prevent some of those bits of fibre gear circulating round the engine and causing chaos.  In the end, I bought a brand new ATD with fibre gear during the Berg's rebuild, and it's been fine since.

I'd have no problems with an alloy gear.  As somone said, sudden maggie seize-ups seem extremely rare, and you would probably get some indication that the maggie was on the way out prior to it locking up completely.

[Black Sheep]

The MSS is quicker throughout. Change into top at 50 mph and cruise at 60-65. It will gallop along at 75 if you wish but I only do that if overtaking lesser modern machines. You notice the extra urge climbing long hills.
Handling is good, but then again swinging arm BSAs handle superbly too.
The BSA 4 gallon tank is much better than the 2 gallon Velo one. The B31 has managed 250m miles on a tankful. On the Velo I start to get mild panic after 100 miles. The Velo stepped seat is more comfortable. Both have E3L dynamos and 6v halogen headlights.

[Joolstacho]

Yes the Velo is designed to rev, whereas the b33 is more of a low down 'plonker' isn't it. Fellers new to Velos sometimes 'under-rev' them, which the big end doesn't really like too much of.
And the beauty of Velos is that this MSS is easily turned into a faster Venom, or Clubman, -just the cam, a higher comp piston and maybe carb change will give you something that'll get close to 100mph, maybe change the front sprocket (a 10 minute job because it's outside of that infamous clutch).
(The later 4 1/4 gallon tank gives much better range, and it's dead handsome too).

[Rex]

There was a Velo press release often reprinted on the Net and the Velo club where Veloce said that there had been complaints that the Venom was actually slower than the MSS, so they recommended that to get the best out of the Venom it needed to be revv'ed hard.
It wasn't a big single "get it into top gear and sit there" plodder and shouldn't be used like that, they said.

[Triton Thrasher]

There was a Velo press release often reprinted on the Net and the Velo club where Veloce said that there had been complaints that the Venom was actually slower than the MSS, so they recommended that to get the best out of the Venom it needed to be revv'ed hard.
It wasn't a big single "get it into top gear and sit there" plodder and shouldn't be used like that, they said.

Which is a reminder to us all, that attempts at performance tuning can easily get you less of a bike than you had before, because you lose flexibility.