60 hours on that exhaust I just designed something similar this morning sat on the bog lol Wasn't blue though
Such an awesome bike, and the sound just doesn't do it justice, sounds so much better in the flesh, incidentally, I have sat on that bike :biggrin:
Saw it at the TT. Between races, it was displayed in a shop in Douglas for anyone to inspect it, peer into its nooks and crannies and marvel at everything about it, so much so, that my eyes were out of breath in less than 5 minutes Correct use of the word, 'awesome'
What a shame the world lost such an amazing engineer so young! As the MCN article stated, who knows what we might have been riding if Britten had lived longer.
I know the guy who rode it - Nick Jeffries - really lovely guy Spoke to him a while back as I googled videos of him at the TT and they were him riding the Britten at the TT. I first met him through another friend when we were all having a curry before a Cadwell trackday - I had never heard of him (!) or his family as hadnt really watched the TT Came away from that thinking he has a screw loose, was very very fast and also that the Britten was something else He said that it was an awesome bike to ride and echoed what is said above - that Britten was a genius He told me that he had designed and manufactured literally everything in his house - handles, light fittings, everything - said it was a work of art
Worth grabbing a beer and watching these Here’s part 1 : John Britten Documentary Part 1 of 3 - YouTube <John Britten Documentary Part 1 of 3 - YouTube> Part 2 : John Britten Documentary Part 2 of 3 - YouTube Part 3 : John Britten Documentary Part 3 of 3 - YouTube
Yes the sound of the Britten at the TT was unique. You could hear it for miles, probably nearly 4/5 miles away it was such a low frequency exhaust note. You'd sit there hearing it and then nothing for ages and then it'd rush past in a blur of colour and roar of induction noise. That, the Honda six, Ducati Supermono and Lancaster Bombers are my favourite sounds of all time. It was really Kiwi Shaun Harris who put all the effort in at the Isle of Man for many years and got the Britten's best (and worst! - a wheelie flipping the bike on the line, a 6 foot race!!) results there. He was so tenacious and really stuck with the project. The "Battle on the Island" year with Nick Jefferies, Robert Holden and Mark Farmer riding was a grim year. We lost Mark crashing at the treacherous Black Dub and weather was against the others. Nick was actually very critical about the Britten and made some tough comments, captured in Tim Hanna's book for posterity. He gave the impression he was riding it for the publicity not becasue he thought it could win. It seemed a bitter relationship between him and the team. I got to meet a lot of the guys over the years at the TT and have a few beers with them and they were all massive enthusiasts fuelled by the genius of John Britten. It's a tragedy we lost him so young or maybe we'd have street versions of the bike plus the 100bhp single cylinder bike he was beginning to talk about. The shop that Borgo talks about was "Intersport" on the Strand in Douglas. The owner was a massive fan and supporter of the Britten and they held poster signings there regularly. That's where I gout Shaun to sign my leathers in the avatar...I'm a huge fan of John Britten and always will be ;-)
The Gremlin (Shaun Harris) rode the Britten in NZ as well, but the rider who is most closely linked to the bike and John is/was Andrew Stroud, he still gets the bike every now and then to ride "demonstration" laps at events, I last saw the bike a couple of years ago at the Burt Munro Challenge Wyndham street race, he was givin' it some, it is still exciting to see
Very true Dave - who could forget Stroudy's ride a Daytona - awesome stuff. Shaun was more associated with the Britten at the TT I think and Loren Poole also rode over in the isle of man in the early days. Andrew rang me up once - he'd apparently had his leathers stolen while over here in the UK and thought the ones I was wearing were his! LOL
Andrew still rides in the NZ Superbike Champs, and is still very competative, (he won last year or the year before) he now has 7 or 8 (???) kids and seems evergreen, it is a great disappointment for me that he didn't manage to go further, he had the talent just not the funds.
You're dead right there Dave - super rider, bit of an odd style with his feet sticking out but he could have gone far given the breaks. I'd have loved to have seen him come over here and do a few seasons in BSB...
I was at the 94 TT when Jeffries rode the Britten in anger, the sound was awesome! When the bikes where not being ridden,they where displayed on a stand behind the grandstand for all to see, motorcycle eye candy for everyone!
was talking to someone in the know today and mentioned the britten to him,next thing he pulls out his phone and proceeds to show lots of pics of him on the italian bike (i think).he told me that one britten is going to be ridden at the tt next year.
That'll be Roberto Crepaldi's CR&S Britten, the one Mark Farmer was sadly killed on. Roberto was a great supporter of john's, shame they never got as far as discussing production of he v1000 road bike...
