KTT 581: An Update

In an earlier post – here – I mentioned that the owner of the original chassis had contacted me. He also lives on the South Coast in the UK and subsequently visited me and was able to provide quite a bit of further information about the history of the bike.

Firstly, and for me extremely useful, he has a picture of Doug Pirie astride the bike after coming 4^th in the Junior TT.

The bike now sports the number 4 rather than his racing number of 19 to indicate that he came 4^th. I don’t know how to interpret his expression - he does not look happy! It may be that having raced very hard and come 4^th he was disappointed. Alternatively, having just raced over 7 laps of the Mountain Circuit (yes, it was 7 laps in 1935!) – 264 miles at an average speed of over 77 mph on roads that are not the lovely smooth tarmacadam surface that we have today that he was simply exhausted.

Anyway, the picture is extremely useful to me – details such as the form of the mudguards, mudguard stays, whether wheel rims were chrome plated or painted etc will help me in recreating the bike.

The other information that is of interest is the history of the bike immediately after Doug Pirie’s death in the lightweight race. It seems that his brother, John Pirie, then took charge of the bike and had it road registered. A copy of the old-style buff log book

shows that he became the registered owner in June 1936 (the first owner is “Stevens”, the London Velocette dealer to whom the bike was originally delivered).

It is believed that John Pirie did not ride the bike but simply kept it as a memorial to his brother. The lack of wear inside the engine would support this,

The bike was then sold to Geoff Monty, a very successful racer of 250cc bikes in the 1950s and who subsequently teamed up with Allen Dudley-Ward to develop a business producing racing motorcycles (see here). Although there is no date in the log book it is believed to be around 1950 when Geoff Monty acquired the bike and it was at this time that the engine and other parts were removed, to be replaced by a 250.

Thankyou Mick for providing all of the above information.

Earlier this year I put an advert in the “Wanted” section of Fishtail seeking an “oily rag” Mk 2 KSS or KTS that I could use as a basis for the rebuild – the chassis of these bikes are the same as the Mk V KTT – the plan being to use a donor bike and replace the engine, exhaust pipe and petrol tank from the original KTT 581. After quite a few months I have heard nothing.

However, it seems that every time I go on holiday something turns up. I was in Marrakech when I bought the engine and my wife and I were in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago for a short break when a 1936 KSS turned up on eBay. After a brief negotiation I have now acquired this.

By coincidence, it was also first registered in June 1936 and it will now form the donor bike to build the replica of the original TT bike.

There will be quite a few bits coming up for sale from this bike, notably the engine, petrol tank and exhaust system but also other extraneous parts such as the entire electrics, primary chaincases (screw type), mudguards, toolbox etc. The engine runs just fine.

I know that some people will be horrified that I am effectively breaking an original bike, however, I consider it more important to see and hear the original KTT engine running again as it did 90 years ago at the TT. And if the parts from this bike help to get someone back on the road, then so much the better. So, if you are interested in any of the parts that I won’t be needing then please contact me via email.