John Kenton Britten (1 August 1950 – 5 September 1995) was a New Zealand mechanical

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who designed a world-record-setting motorcycle with innovative features and materials.

Biography

John Britten was born to Bruce and Ruvae Britten in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

at 10 minutes to midnight. His twin sister Marguerite was born just after midnight, so although they were twins they celebrated their birthdays on different dates. Being

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

, 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 Richard William Pearse (3 December 1877 – 29 July 1953) was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterwards describe observing Pearse flying and landing a powered h ...

(pioneer aviator), Bill Hamilton (father of the jet boat),

Bruce McLaren Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970) was a New Zealand racing driver, automotive designer, engineer and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . McLaren was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Champ ...

(champion driver and founder of the McLaren Formula One Team), and

Burt Munro Herbert James "Burt" Munro (''Bert'' in his youth; 25 March 1899 – 6 January 1978) was a motorcycle racer from New Zealand, famous for setting an under-1,000 cc world record, at Bonneville, on August 26, 1967. This record still stands; Mu ...

(world record motorcycle speedster and subject of the film ''

The World's Fastest Indian ''The World's Fastest Indian'' is a 2005 New Zealand biographical Sports film, sports Drama (film and television), drama film based on the story of New Zealand speed bike racer Burt Munro and his highly modified 1920 Indian Scout (motorcycle), I ...

''). 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. Britten travelled to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where he worked for four months with

Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners was a British firm of consulting civil engineers, founded in 1922 by Sir Alexander Gibb, and initially headquartered in London before moving west to Reading in Berkshire in 1974 to the former site of Suttons Seeds. I ...

on a highway design linking the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

to the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

. 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. In 1978, Britten and his wife bought a historic residence in Matai Street,

Riccarton Riccarton may refer to: New Zealand * Riccarton, New Zealand, a suburb of Christchurch ** Riccarton (New Zealand electorate), the electorate named after it ** The location of Riccarton Race Course * a locality on the Taieri Plains in Otago Scot ...

, that they spent the next six years renovating. As of 2018, one of their daughters lived in the house with her family. In February 1995 John Britten was elected to the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (now

Engineering New Zealand Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau (ENZ; previously the New Zealand Institution of Engineers – NZIE and then Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand – IPENZ) is a not-for-profit professional body that promotes the integrity ...

) as an Honorary Fellow, "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the advancement of the science and profession of engineering".

Britten designed

Britten worked on

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

design for some years, developing innovative methods using

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

s and performance engine designs. He created the Britten Motorcycle Company in 1992 to produce machines to his own design made of light materials and using engines that he had 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 finished second and third against the factory machines in the Battle of the Twins at

Daytona Daytona may refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach, Florida * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as Daytona, the region around Daytona Beach Motor racing * Dayto ...

, United States of America. One of Britten's motorcycles is on permanent display at the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand.

Death

Diagnosed with an inoperable

skin cancer Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the Human skin, skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells (biology), cells that have the ability to invade or metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. It occurs when skin cells grow ...

related illness, he died on 5 September 1995 just over a month after his forty-fifth birthday. His funeral at

Christchurch Cathedral Christ Church Cathedral, also called ChristChurch Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecration, deconsecrated Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 ...

was attended by over one thousand mourners and he was widely mourned throughout New Zealand.

Motorcycle

Only 10 Britten V1000 and Britten V1100 motorcycles, not including 1 prototype, were ever constructed. Britten's designs included: *Carbon fibre body work including wheels, front suspension fork, and swingarm *Hand cast, 4 valves per cylinder alloy engine *Frame-less chassis with engine acting as a stressed member *Radiator located under the rider's seat *Carbon fibre fasteners (joining bodywork together) *Rear suspension shock located in front of engine *Engine data logging. Non-Britten Components: *Tyres *Brakes *Steel cylinder liners *Gearbox (sourced from a Suzuki) *Suspension shocks *Various electrical components.

References

External links

Britten Motorcycle CompanyBritten – Backyard Visionary
a full-length documentary from 1993 on NZ On Screen
Biography of John Britten
from the