Development
Based on the Velocette KSS, the KTT was developed as a production racer specifically for the challenging Isle of Man TT course, which was the main road race in the world at the time. The prototype was built by Percy and Eugene Goodman, sons of the Velocette founder in 1924 and after twelve months of development secured Velocette their first TT win in 1926. Alec Bennett was the winner with Gus Kuhn and Fred Povey finishing in the first nine to give the factory the team prize. Further work on KTT led to the first positive-stop foot gear change on a motorcycle in 1928. Other makers had modified the hand change for foot operation but none had achieved a mechanism which could change up or down gears with a single click. As well as being significant improvement for racing, this quickly replaced the difficult hand gear change lever and became the standard for almost all motorcycles to this day.
The Velocette KTT continued in development to sort out reliability problems after a number of retirements and went on to become the first Junior competitor to lap the island course at over 70mph and won several TT's and Grands Prix (the amateur version of the TT). The KTT also set a new 350cc world record of 100.39mph at Brooklands.
Another innovation on the 1929 model was the strengthened front fork, originally designed to cope with the abnormal stresses of sidecar racing. The production racing Velocette KTT went on to become one of the most successful Junior TT motorcycles of all time and the most popular with the privateers who raced without the support of the big factory teams.
Production of the Velocette KTT ended in 1935, and it was the last Velocette model to use an open cam box and fully pressurized oil system. The model was replaced after World War II by the Velocette KTT Mk VIII.
Read more about this topic: Velocette KTT
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