John Britten
John Kenton Britten (
August 1,
1950–
September 5,
1995) was a
New Zealand mechanical
engineer who designed a world-record-setting motorcycle with innovative features which were years ahead of contemporary design.
John Britten was born to Bruce and Ruvae Britten at
Christchurch at 10 minutes to midnight and his sister Marguerite just after midnight, so although they were twins they celebrated their birthdays on different dates. Even in birth he showed he was destined to be "different". A
dyslexic, he needed to have exam questions read to him at school and during his tertiary education, and his answers recorded by a writer, but that didn't stop him from developing into a remarkable engineer and architectural designer.
His childhood heroes were notable fellow New Zealanders,
Richard Pearse (pioneer aviator),
Bill Hamilton (father of the jet boat),
Bruce McLaren (champion driver and founder of the
McLaren Formula One Team), and
Burt Munro (world record motorcycle speedster and subject of the film
The World's Fastest Indian). In his own short lifetime, Britten was regularly and favourably compared with all of his heroes.
Britten completed a four-year mechanical engineering course at night school before joining
ICI as a cadet
draughtsman, giving him a wide range of work experience including mould design, pattern design, metal spinning and various mechanical engineering designs.
John travelled to
England where he worked for four months with
Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners on a highway design linking the M1 to the M4.
Back in New Zealand he was design engineer for Rowe Engineering, designing off-road equipment and heavy machinery. In
1976, he built glass kilns and went into business as a fine artist designing and making hand-made glass lighting, later joining the family property management and development business.
John worked on
motorcycle design for some years, developing innovative methods using
composite materials and performance engine designs. He created the Britten Motorcycle Company in
1992 to produce revolutionary machines to his own design made of light materials and using engines he built himself, which became famous around the world.
His Britten motorcycles won races and set numerous speed records on the international circuits, and astounded the motorcycle world in
1991 when they came a remarkable second and third against the factory machines in the
Battle of the Twins at
Daytona, USA.
One of Britten's radical motorcycles is on permanent display at
Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of
New Zealand in
Wellington. However there has been some controversy over whether the machine on display is a genuine racer or just a "shadow bike", assembled from spare parts.
New Zealand mourned in
1995 when John died aged 45 after a brief illness related to
cancer.
Britten V1000 and V1100 has body are made of carbon fibre, custom 1000 or 1100 cc steel engines, and frameless chassis. John Britten originally intended to build 10 motorcycles, but some of them were built after his death.
Although frameless design had been around since 1986[
1], major motorcycle manufacturers have not adopted it until John's perfected design hit the track.
*Tim Hanna.
John Britten, ISBN 1-877333-5.
*http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/britten.html
*http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Childrens/FamousNewZealanders/more/JohnBrittenandtheSuperbike.asp
*
Britten Motorcycle Company*
Britten Motorcycle - UNOFFICIAL* a good book on John Britten is "John Britten: the boy who did do better"
