1933 KTT Mark IV Velocette

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The premier race for English fans of the Twenties and Thirties was the Isle of Man TT — a long distance run around an island in the Irish Sea between Scotland, Ireland and England — and most top-end production racers were built with an eye toward that race. "Anything successful in a 360-mile race has to be built to hold together," Paul explains. "I started seeking out and buying old racing bikes from the Twenties and Thirties. My theory was correct — old racing bikes do hold together, and can be ridden very hard and very quickly."

A second family thread came from Paul’s grandmother, who was an editor of Vogue magazine. "I became obsessed with old books on motorcycling, especially the photographs," he explains. "In the 1920s, you wore a tie when you raced a motorcycle. I loved that — it seemed so genteel. Competition was so civilized. You had a guy wearing a sweater and tie doing 120mph. As I got interested in older motorcycles, I also became interested in period clothing, and I researched the clothing the racing men of the time wore."

Enter the KTT
People who are interested in old British motorcycles tend to know each other, and about eight years ago, a friend of Paul’s discovered that a Velocette collector’s estate was being sold off. "I bought everything he had except two bikes. I wanted this KTT Mark IV, and I had to buy almost the entire collection in order to get it," Paul says.

The Mark IV had been sitting for 15 years. "I wanted to run it, but first I had to do a little remedial work," Paul explains. Surprisingly, the Velocette needed no major work. "A month later, I ran a 1,000-mile Velocette rally on it," he says.

Paul pieced together the history of the bike, and found it had been ridden on public roads (with clip-on lights) by an early owner, before finding its way to five-time Isle of Man TT winner Eddie Arnold, who set it up for racing with a Mark 8 front end from the 1940s (complete with excellent Velocette brakes), a 19-inch rear tire (there were no 20-inch racing tires available) and an aggressive cam.

At this writing, Paul has put about 12,000 miles on the KTT, and with no major breakdowns. He claims that maintenance is only marginally more involved than on a newer bike: "The bike is fairly bulletproof. The only grease fittings are on the forks. I run Castrol straight 50-weight oil. The engine has an open cam box, and a fully pressurized oil system. Oil pours out of it — it basically changes itself. I’ve changed the oil twice in not quite eight years." From 1936 on, Velocette enclosed the cam box.

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