Customer Reviews

John Britten

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I don't write spoiler reviews. I bought this book due to the Britten's accomplishments, & what I'd heard of John. After reading this lengthy biography. I must say. He's not the hero I thought he was. The book is a bit monotonous @times. The author spent over five years researching it. It paints a picture that isn't always flattering to John Britten's memory. He's a hero in NZ for what his project was able to accomplish. He sounds like he was a neat guy. Until you learn of his using, & throwing people away. Until you learn of his stealing patents from his trusted inner circle. That's more of a spoiler than I usually write. I think when one speaks ill of the dead. One needs to qualify it. I'll say no more on it. Yeah, he managed to do some great things himself, & orchestrate more. The Britten V1000 is an amazing bike. The wrongs he did to the people he owed the most to, however. Simply outweigh the positives in my book. If you can find a reasonably priced copy (Britten family estate quashing it?). Read it, & judge for yourself.

I am not a motorcycle enthusiast, I came across the story of John Britten after he died, having watched a television documentary about the making of the Briteen V1000 and it's trip to Daytona for the Battle of the Twins. It was an amazing story of building a bike in his garage that took on the world (and eventually winning quite a few times). It seemed preposterous and it caught my attention. It didn't hurt that there was some national pride involved. I was also fascinating that Britten had built an amazing house of his own done some great restoration jobs on old motorbikes and trucks at a pretty young age and had ambitions to build an ornithopter. To me this seemed to be a story about human potential.

Eventually (last week) my curiosity rose to such a pitch that I had to know more and so I got this book, it's a pretty hefty tome 450 large pages of text, I thought it would satisfy my curiosity.

I have now read it and while the story wasn't quite as simple as that documentary would have had me believe, it is still an amazing story. Britten's early life is absolutely fascinating, he had amazing talents a unique mind and people seemed drawn to him.

Britten was not a great reader or writer so we see very little of the story in his own words, and actually the book becomes more of a story of team Britten after the V1000 is created and that's good to see that John had more than a little help from his friends. He doesn't seem to have been such a great manager as he was an innovator. But he was a man that was well loved and he also had big responsibilities put upon him.

All in all a fascinating story of incredible achievement, triumphs, but also sadness and disappointment. A very human story. And then there is the Britten what can you say? it was a thing of beauty, very innovative and it went amazingly fast. This is a man who made a difference. A very human story I highly resommend it.