Great Britten!

Britten motorcycles became so iconic in such a short period of time during the 1990s that several buyers put them straight into their private collections, or museums: this is where some will rightly remain to immortalise one of the world’s greatest motorcycle builders, and artists…

Yet the Brittens were created to race, by a racer, so what were the Brittens really like to ride in those heady days under the gaze and later the shadow of the late, great John Britten himself?

For the decade they were in production, lessons were learned and improvements were made.These were not mass-produced motorcycles, so not all Brittens were created equal: some riders learned to ride around the bikes’ unique handling issues: here are their stories.

Gary Goodfellow

Kiwi test rider

New Zealander Gary Goodfellow’s involvement with John Britten began by racing the Aero-d-One in 1988, and later moving onto the Precursor which he took to Canada to develop, and race.

Confusingly, Gary is often thought of as a Canadian as a result! He recalls: “I rode the Aero 'd One and it was impressive. It was running on alcohol so it had amazing power, but it seemed to handle pretty good and it worked well off the bat. So it was just a matter of John making some improvements and I went from there. I only rode it for about three months because John goes: ‘Oh well, that’s no good so I'll build a new one!’”

Then living in Canada, Goodfellow had been ranked fifth in World Motocross, and later that year became the first Kiwi to win a World Superbike race with his 1988 Sugo victory in Japan. “The Precursor handled amazing, really good,” recalls Gary. “I can