Britten Motorcycles: The John Britten Story

Way back in 1995 (if I remember correctly), my dad showed me the picture of a guy sitting in front of a pink and blue bike and told me, “Rajeev, this guy right here built a bike without a frame!”. That just amazed me and I started asking my dad questions about how he did it, and the only reply I ever got was “he used the engine as the frame”.

Years went by, and I forgot about this. But in 2007, I found the picture of the guy who sat in front of his pink and blue bike with a smile on his face again. I started reading about John Britten and his work on the Britten VR1000. I wanted to know what he did to learn about building bikes, so I bought the book titled ‘Britten Motorcycles: The John Britten Story’ by Felicity Price on amazon.

The story is truly inspirational. Despite being dyslexic, John accomplished what a normal man couldn’t – race his creation against factory Ducati twins and win. It is not just the bikes he built that inspired me, but also his do-it-yourself approach to everything. He used to work on glass decorations, built his own house, machined all the metal fittings in his house himself etc. This is a really good read and I recommend this book to anyone who likes to get their hands dirty and do stuff on their own.