68 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
In 1952 Alf was sacked after losing his temper
and throwing a spanner across the workshop at his
irascible boss Alf Tapper. Having spent some time in
the pub he returned later that day to pick up his
wages. He also had his pistol with him, shooting
and wounding Alf Tapper in the shoulder! After
serving time “at her majesty’s pleasure” he rebuilt
his life and by 1960 had enough money to buy and
import a brand new Harley-Davidson KRTT 750.
Alf bought the KRTT 750 to compete in the open
classes in local club events, hill-climbs, sprints and
beach racing. After some initial runs, he decided,
with Burt Munro’s help, to do a bit of tuning, adding
a second magneto and a second sparkplug to each
cylinder head. The second magneto was fitted
where the rev counter drive emerged from the
timing chest. The cylinder head fins were also
drilled, whether to improve cooling or lighten them
is not clear. In this form the machine was clocked at
118mph at a Christchurch meeting, however on a
photograph taken at the time, Alf wrote “Twin plugs
tried – no success”. He later remarked that the twin
magneto set up was no faster than the single mag!
At a later Christchurch meeting he achieved 125mph
one way and a two way average of 122mph. Alf
continued to race the KRTT 750 through the 1960s,
occasionally buying updates from the factory.
After some years of racing the KRTT 750 was
getting rather long in the tooth and so was Alf, so
he sold the machine to an Auckland dealership,
Haldanes, who then sold it to Jack McKay of
Auckland. The machine was registered for the first
time in 1970 by Jack and was allocated plate
number 73 NC. The next owner, Tim Thompson,came across the KRTT 750 purely by chance. He had
heard that Jack McKay had a 1947 Harley Davidson
1200cc UL for sale, and flush after selling some land
in Arrowtown NZ, wanted to buy it. However Jack
McKay didn’t want to sell the UL until he had got rid
of the other Harley he had, the KRTT 750, so Tim
bought them both. How long Jack McKay owned the
machine is not completely clear, according to the
ownership papers it was sold to Tim Thompson in1960 KRTT 750 HARLEY-DAVIDSON
ABOVE 1960 KRTT as modified and raced by Alf Groves.
BELOW John Twaddle on his 1960 KRTT.