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KITTO | 1901-03 | UK :<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The Kitto was a British motorcycle produced from 1901 to 1903 by the Kitto Automobile Co. Ltd. of Chiswick, in west London. It was one of the more mechanically distinguished of the pioneer British motor-bicycle makers, and sufficiently well-regarded at the time to merit double coverage in The Autocar, then the most authoritative British motoring journal, and to serve as a reference design for at least one other manufacturer.<\/p>\n The Kitto’s defining characteristic was its narrow, integrated construction. The machines shown by the Kitto Automobile Co. Ltd. at the 1902 Stanley Cycle Show were of their well-known narrow type, adapted so that the engine took the place of the usual pillar tube, it being fixed at the bottom end to the bracket and the down tube, and at the top end by a clip into which the seat pillar fits. The engine was 3.25 horsepower, with a combined mixing valve and throttle, or could be supplied with a float-feed and spray carburettor. The top tube carried the lubricating oil, and the engine was supplied by a small force pump. There was a single lever to control the exhaust valve lifter and advance sparking. The battery and coil were clamped round the down tube, whilst the petrol tank was on the down stays. An exhaust box capable of being cleaned was an advantage. The driving pulley was securely fastened to the rim of the back wheel, not to the spokes.<\/p>\n This is a remarkable specification for 1902. The engine-as-pillar-tube concept, placing the power unit within the frame’s structural geometry rather than appended to it, anticipated by several years the approach that would become standard in purpose-built motorcycle design. By fixing the engine at the bottom bracket and using a clip at the top into which the seat pillar fitted, the Kitto’s designers were thinking about integration between engine and frame at a time when the dominant approach was simply to bolt or clip an engine to whatever frame member was most convenient. The resulting narrow machine would have been cleaner and slimmer in profile than the typical motor-bicycle of the day, with its bulging clip-on motor and added fuel tank. The decision to fasten the driving pulley to the rim rather than the spokes was another practical detail: spokes on heavily loaded rear wheels were prone to failure under the combined stresses of engine torque and road impact, and rim mounting distributed the load more evenly.<\/p>\n The Kitto’s influence on contemporaries was acknowledged in trade references. The Sparkbrook motor-bicycle of the same period was described in the press as being built on the lines of the Kitto, representing an active choice to pursue integrated, purposefully designed construction rather than the simpler route of a modified bicycle. That a Coventry firm invoked a London pioneer as a design template indicates the Kitto’s standing in the trade.<\/p>\n The Kitto received dedicated editorial coverage in The Autocar of 1901 on two separate occasions, which indicates that the machine was considered genuinely novel rather than a routine new entrant to the crowded pioneer motor-bicycle field. Double coverage in the most respected British motoring journal of the day suggests a machine that was either technically unusual enough to merit revisiting or had attracted public interest through demonstration or competitive appearance.<\/p>\n The Kitto Automobile Co. Ltd. did not survive the shakeout that eliminated most of the pioneer British motor-bicycle makers who had flourished in 1901 and 1902. The narrow integrated design, however technically distinguished, did not translate into commercial longevity. The company’s Chiswick base, while convenient for London demonstration and sales, lacked the manufacturing infrastructure of the Birmingham and Coventry firms that would dominate the next decade. Production ceased in 1903, and William Henry Kitto emigrated to the United States with his family the following year. The Kitto remains one of the more technically forward-looking of the forgotten British pioneer marques, a small west London company that for three years at the turn of the century built a machine that its contemporaries recognised as something worth studying.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KITTO | 1901-03 | UK : The Kitto was a British motorcycle produced from 1901 to 1903 by the Kitto Automobile Co. Ltd. of Chiswick, in west London. It was one of the more mechanically distinguished of the pioneer<\/p>\n