Scott Motorcycles Tt 1929
This bike is a 1929 Scott TT Racer 600cc motor long stroke replica built around 1928 (the word replica mentioned here, means it was built by Scott to replicate their race winning Isle of Man Scott, it is not a copy built bike).
The Scott motor is an unbelievably clever design. The owner can stop on the side of the road and by removing the inspection port plates at the rear of the barrels can check on the condition of the pistons and rings. It is also possible to inspect the side main roller bearings without disassembling the motor at the road side.
Having conceived the design in 1908 Alfred Scott had added rotary induction valves to the design within a few short years and made his water cooled machine to include a triangulated tubular steel frame (remarkably advanced for its time). By 1914 it featured geared rotary valves and a unit construction engine and gearbox.
Scott machines had an honourable racing history, both at the Isle of Man and on shorter racing circuits. Their TT racing started in 1909 in the era when 2 strokes were held to have a power advantage over other machines. The racing power of the day the ACU insisted on handicapping 2 strokes and rated them at 1.25 of a 4 strokes capacity. If the bike also happened to be water cooled it was handicapped by 1.32. The rule was dropped in 1911 and in 1912 and 1913 Scott won.
In 1929 Scott fielded 6 reworked Scott 600s racers at the Isle of Man but only one finished, coming 13th. Sadly the new 600cc machine didn’t save the company, and in 1930 an official receiver was appointed.
Alfred Scott died in 1923 at the age of 48 and with the era of expansion chambers for 2 strokes decades away they couldn’t match the constantly improving 4 strokes, thus relegating Scott’s to the amateur TT (except for Tommy Hatches 3rd in the 1928 Senior TT).
Scott finally went into liquidation in 1950, but around 270 Flying Squirrels were built in Birmingham until 1978.
NZ Classics has undertaken this bike as a project with the aim of getting this rare piece of machinery back on the track, so it can be seen and heard and appreciated by all (veteran girder class).
We sent the motor to Roger Moss in the UK ,who happens to be the world’s leading authority on these bikes (he owns and races perhaps the quickest Scott racers in the world today). NZ’s own Paul Dobbs would race Rogers Scott at classic events in the UK before the tragic loss of his life at the Isle of Man.
Roger has carried out a number of major upgrades to the basic original motor, all still keeping it very much standard, but removing the “fragile“ elements in the original design. Google “Roger Moss and Scott” and enjoy the many well written articles about an unbelievably clever man.
This bike was purchased from the John Howard collection in Christchurch in 2012.