THE BRITTEN: MAKING EVERYTHING

摘要

Many have worked night and day to embody an innovation or two in a motorcycle, but the late John Britten tackled the entire vehicle-designing by building his own big V-twin engine from scratch, fabricating carbon-fiber chassis and wheels in new ways, developing a novel front suspension, creating a ducted under-seat cooling system, and taking on a fresh approach to aerodynamics. What struck me about John when I first met him at Daytona in 1991 was his boyish enthusiasm. He wanted to make useful things and was enjoying every minute. Effort was clearly involved, but it all came so easily that, for him, this was play. Somehow he and a group of enthusiasts had designed and built a complete original motorcycle and had brought it 8,000 miles from New Zealand to race at Daytona.