[RD350]

During the late 1980s, Kiwi inventor John Britten developed and built a revolutionary racing motorcycle. He pursued his dream all the way to Daytona International Speedway, where, in 1992, as an unlikely underdog, he proceeded to beat the biggest and richest manufacturers in the world. Britten: Backyard Visionary documents the maverick motorcycle designer that Guggenheim curator Ultan Guilfoyle described as "the New Zealander who stood the world of racing-motorcycle design on its head."

http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/britten-backyard-visionary-1993/overview

 

[Nudist]

I just watched a movie on him not to long ago - great story.

 

['86meesta2]

epic.

 

[VTWINPOWER]

A great mind this man had.

 

[MagpieTear]

We can't begin to imagine the face of motorcycling today if he had not been stolen from us so young.

 

[Chilltake]

Great guy, great ideas, great philosophies and an even better bike!! I wish he was still alive

 

[onlycrimson]

Just watched it. Amazing! How in the hell was he able to do that? Just amazing.

 

[Nudist]

We can't begin to imagine the face of motorcycling today if he had not been stolen from us so young.

And what he was doing was so unique and revolutionary that there was no one to take the reigns.

 

[badguy]

Thanks for the link! Britten was one hell of an underdog.

 

[snowman88]

D*mn, what an amazing man and bike.

 

[mullerjd]

One of my pics from NZ

 

[Jan Zoellner]

And what he was doing was so unique and revolutionary that there was no one to take the reigns.

I always wondered. I mean, the guy literally cooked parts in his friggin kitchen and created a fabulous, world-class machine. One should think that a big company with much better manpower and equipment could develop on that. Any insight why the design wasn´t developed or at least clones produced?

Ciao
Jan

 

[JPDD]

If you guys get a chance check out Kevin Cameron's piece on Britten in his collection of writings Top Dead Center. Great stuff.