Motorcycle Racing Ingenuity

[Rod Richardson]

For those who have never seen it before, the following series of videos follows the design and development of the magnificent Britten superbike that stunned the racing world in the early 90's and held 3 world speed records. A truly inspirational story of this very special machine made by Kiwi John Britten from scratch on a shoestring budget with the aid of several mates. Unfortunately cancer terminated his life in approx. 1996.

He had carried on the tradition of fellow Kiwi H.J. (Bert) Munro of The World's Fastest Indian fame, another backyard design and mechanical mastermind. Follow the link and be inspired then click onto the successive videos at the end of each one.

NZ On Screen - Britten: Backyard Visionary (http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/britten-backyard-visionary-1993)


http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/images/jkb-queenstown.jpg

[TheFamousEccles]

I recall seeing one of these beasties getting around PI in a support race for WSBK ('96?) in the BoTT, can't remember who was riding, but it had lapped the entire field by the end of the third lap, and had caught many of the backmarkers again by the end of the race!

[The Phantom]

Eccles, that rider was most likely NZ's Andrew Stroud (one of the best 'most under-rated rider' on the planet).

Hell of a bike, of course. Haven't watched the clips yet, are they from the doco "The John Britten Story"? It was a fantastic bit of film, you came away not so much blown away by the Britten as by the man himself.

[NinjaMaster]

I think the word for Stroud is 'evergreen'. Very good rider. I also remember seeing him pilot that thing round the Island mid-nineties and it really was in a class of it's own and Stroud made the absolute most of it.

The Britten is an amazing motorcycle. I think it looks quite good in a different sort of way. That a dude can build a bike from the ground up in his backyard, and it perform so well, is just incredible. Such a shame to lose him.