Dare to Dream: The John Britten Story

Those who have any interest of knowledge in motorcycle racing will know who John Britten is. A mercurial designer who built motorcycles in his garage, in Christchurch New Zealand which surpassed the multi-million dollar budgets and hundred person factories in Europe and around the world. The Britten motorcycles in their heyday were so unorthodox, yet so highly performing they were challenged only by their own reliability. They set records almost every time they raced, they pushed the envelope so hard, and were so unique that no motorcycle enthusiast could be unaware of them.

That John Britten was a motorcycle genius is a given. But as an entrepreneur, an innovator and an inspiration he is perhaps less recognised outside of New Zealand.

This book by Felicity Price is a biography, accompanied by many excellent photographs, which explores all of Brittan's life. For a bike enthusiast it contains loads of photographs of the 10 Britten bikes, during development, and racing, along with loads of statistics, annual racing achievements and records etc - an unparalleled publication.

For others, this book also covers John's family life, his work as a designer (furniture, jewellery, glass lampshades, vehicles, architecture), his work in property - again as a designer, but also in pioneering construction techniques, in alternative thinking, and in houses, apartments and his intentions with the Cathedral Junction development project.

When he died from cancer in 1995, aged only 45, many people expressed with surprise that “it was amazing something else didn't kill him before cancer - the dare-devil, push-it-to-the-max attitude that saw him launch hang gliders that were too difficult for him to learn on, fly planes he wasn't licensed to, ride bikes, cars and jet-boats faster and further than anyone, work with lead, burn toxic tar off tiles for months on end, and handle polyurethane and carbon fibre on an almost daily basis.” (P120)

The biggest thinking point on this book, and Britten in general, is what a man like him might have achieved in a whole lifetime, given he achieved so much in such a short life?

John Britten remains a legend in New Zealand, perhaps Christchurch in particular, and this is an excellent book, well worth reading if it can be obtained. While not particularly rare, these books hold a higher value now than when originally sold. My copy is signed by Britten's widow, Kirsteen Britten.

5 stars.