2 Brits

[Chooky]

10 characters......

[ellipsis]

...should be in Classic Bikes...cool pic...

[jellywrestler]

10 characters......

it's a shame that the displaying of these bikes has turned into an ego driven circus about whose richer than who.
No other bike was allowed on the track with the Brittens at the weekend, oh, except for a couple of other bikes owned by the same guy...
Take a look at the video of them getting the black bike prepared "the fifty thousand dollar crankshaft"
$50k would get ten cranks made, or they're getting ripped blind, or they're brushing their ego and turning the whole bike into a cock swinging session.

[mossy1200]

it's a shame that the displaying of these bikes has turned into an ego driven circus about whose richer than who.
No other bike was allowed on the track with the Brittens at the weekend, oh, except for a couple of other bikes owned by the same guy...
Take a look at the video of them getting the black bike prepared "the fifty thousand dollar crankshaft"
$50k would get ten cranks made, or they're getting ripped blind, or they're brushing their ego and turning the whole bike into a cock swinging session.

Not only paid to much also purchased a lemon. Why would it need a new crank. They could have paid for an oil change more often instead.

[jellywrestler]

Not only paid to much also purchased a lemon. Why would it need a new crank. They could have paid for an oil change more often instead.

dunno whther it needed a new crank, but if that's how they value it somethings wrong somewhere along the line, cranks are not 'special', they're in every motor pretty well and therefore not hard to make.

[jasonu]

it's a shame that the displaying of these bikes has turned into an ego driven circus about whose richer than who.
turning the whole bike into a cock swinging session.

I've been thinking similarly for a while but was too afraid of being slated on here for saying so.

BTW given the drawings or a sample I am pretty sure I could get a crank made for a lot less than $50k.

[Voltaire]

it's a shame that the displaying of these bikes has turned into an ego driven circus about whose richer than who.
No other bike was allowed on the track with the Brittens at the weekend, oh, except for a couple of other bikes owned by the same guy...
Take a look at the video of them getting the black bike prepared "the fifty thousand dollar crankshaft"
$50k would get ten cranks made, or they're getting ripped blind, or they're brushing their ego and turning the whole bike into a cock swinging session.

I suppose if it were not for the Kevin Grants, you might not see these bikes at all...just saying.
Maybe they wanted the crank done " by tomorrow":lol:

Q: when they were talking about the Britten were in inside the marquee or standing outside.:rolleyes:

[sidecar bob]

Not in an attempt to invalidate anyone's opinion, My perception of the weekend was quite different.
In the absence of the owner of said motorcycles, there would have been no motorcycles at pukekohe last weekend & my personal feeling is that the NZCMRR would be heading for dire straights, (not the band) without the leadership of Kevin.
I found the Britten presentation by Steve Briggs & Andrew Stroud to be far to short, I could have listened to their yarns all evening.
The Britten does hold the keys to the kingdom, that is not the fault of the owner, it's just how they are, there is not another machine that has the effect on people that it does wherever it goes. It's quite amusing to watch people react to it like an exotic, beautiful & famous supermodel.
Without the waterbike in the ownership it is in, the Britten would be nothing more than a memory to most of us.
I also gained the impression, as a third party to a short exchange between two people that Kevin may well have provided a degree of personal financial support to the event. Regardless of an individual's perceived wealth, providing for your peers is a redeeming personality trait.

[gjm]

In the absence of the owner of said motorcycles, there would have been no motorcycles at pukekohe last weekend & my personal feeling is that the NZCMRR would be heading for dire straights, (not the band) without the leadership of Kevin.


This is true of so many situations / clubs / organisations. There are a few with either money or extraordinary dedication and devotion who make these groups and meetings work. (The marshals are another example - they receive an allowance, but it's not even close to an economic wage. Without them, none of these meetings could ever take place.)

If it wasn't for these people, these things would never happen, and the Brittens (in this case) would quite possibly be retired to podiums in museums, or (worse) private collections. It's so good to see that they are being ridden.

[eelracing]

If it wasn't for these people, these things would never happen, and the Brittens (in this case) would quite possibly be retired to podiums in museums, or (worse) private collections. It's so good to see that they are being ridden.

Which begs the question as to what kind of sad-sack would own a bike they wouldn't want to ride.

[jellywrestler]

I suppose if it were not for the Kevin Grants, you might not see these bikes at all...just saying.
Maybe they wanted the crank done " by tomorrow":lol:

Q: when they were talking about the Britten were in inside the marquee or standing outside.:rolleyes:

I love the Britten to bits, and will stop anything i'm doing to listen to one, and to listen to two is double the pleasure. I remember the only bike one could hear from the TT grandstand going through Bradden bridge, was the Britten, three of them meant a triple shot including the one off blue bike with yellow features (rather than the normal pink), still remember it as if it were yesterday and i am thankful that Kevin Grant has let us all see and hear one for all these years. It takes wealth, which i've no doubt he has some, but it takes a lot more than coin to drag it all around nz and the world as he's done, especially when he was still doing so with his badly broken leg.
Yes i was in the marquee, and listened to every word from the three people who spoke, especially Steve Briggs opinions as i'd not heard them before, and he was doing a job racing back then and less aware of his part in the bikes history, now he has realised where it sits in the world of motorcycling.
What does annoy me is the harping on about the inflated value of things, and not allowing other historical bikes a chance to be part of an event like this.
I also take my hat off to the commitee for getting this meeting up and sorted with the limited time, financial input by one or all of them must have occured, as did no doubt a few of the volunteers too.
Just voicing my thoughts.
I also spent a good half and hour studying the minor differences between the two bikes, they were everywhere and indicative to the bikes being hand built, rather than everything CNC machined, although they did lean that way towards the end of the build.
Great to see the black bike in all it's glory, last time i saw that we virtually shovelled the last few bits after it was crashed at the TT, into the truck so I could take it back to England.
the opportunity to take a piece as a souvenier was right there in front of me for a few days, but my respect for the whole thing meant i certainaly didn't.

[Voltaire]

You'll know then...
I was living in the UK for a few years and not aware of the Britten, was at the TT and I saw this bike wheelie out the pits.
I took this pic.
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p235/rednzep/brittian.jpg

[jellywrestler]

does anyone have a pic of the Britten Robert Holden rode at the 1994 TT?

[Flip]

it's a shame that the displaying of these bikes has turned into an ego driven circus about whose richer than who.
No other bike was allowed on the track with the Brittens at the weekend, oh, except for a couple of other bikes owned by the same guy...
Take a look at the video of them getting the black bike prepared "the fifty thousand dollar crankshaft"
$50k would get ten cranks made, or they're getting ripped blind, or they're brushing their ego and turning the whole bike into a cock swinging session.

Simple solution, buy a Brittan and go racing with it, put out or fuck off and join all the other short poppies at the midgit poppy club.

[Katman]

I've been thinking similarly for a while but was too afraid of being slated on here for saying so.



You really are a sensitive wee thing, aren't you?

[Grumph]

does anyone have a pic of the Britten Robert Holden rode at the 1994 TT?

Farmer's bike was the CR&S livery, far as i know the others were in the std colours. Prep for the TT was so rushed that there was no time to do anything special, or so i'm told. Jason took over the ride so any pics of him are the Holden bike...

Amusing to read this thread, it still polarises people. Yes, without Kevin Grant you wouldn't see one running. The family are very much not interested, the team are still puzzled as to how it all happened, and don't really want to go back there.

[Grumph]

Further to the cost of the crank for the CR&S bike, I went back and read the comments by Broz about rebuilding the same bike in Italy. "It was impossible to get work done properly" He was damming about the "expert" machining available to Crepaldi.
Hardly surprising they're saying it was so expensive to get it done right.

[jellywrestler]

Farmer's bike was the CR&S livery, far as i know the others were in the std colours. Prep for the TT was so rushed that there was no time to do anything special, or so i'm told. Jason took over the ride so any pics of him are the Holden bike...


Farmer rode the CR&S bike, Nick jefferies bike was Blue and Pink, and Holden's one was blue but fitted with yellow guards etc from the CR&S spares.
From Memory Jason's bike was brand spankers out of the crate, after holdens had seized at signpost corner, and he elected not to ride it.

Jefferies had a suspension component snap along sulby straight the wheel ground through the mudguard and then wore away at the tailpeice, they patched that tailpeice and it's on the tepapa bike.

[Grumph]

You may be right. Hanna's book says Holden rode the bike again after the bore problem was sorted. Then the breather line wasn't connected to the catch tank and it put oil on the back wheel. Did one lap and pulled out. Then jason was approached to take over.
Ask jason next time you see him.

[jellywrestler]

You may be right. Hanna's book says Holden rode the bike again after the bore problem was sorted. Then the breather line wasn't connected to the catch tank and it put oil on the back wheel. Did one lap and pulled out. Then jason was approached to take over.
Ask jason next time you see him.

i was at the 1994 TT, holden sited lack of practice as a reason for pulling out. Fact was he didn't trust it sufficiently to be fair other manufacturers had had thirty years and hundreds of their bikes lap the course and had that experience, whereas the Britten didn't. I was preparing his bike when he turned up in the shed and i asked whether he was going to ride Monti's ducati factory bike (ballisdare monti -spelling guess had entered an 888 superbike and crashed his monster at glen helen and was out). Holden was off like a shot as he hadn't thought about it, till i mentioned it, got permission from the team but the TT commitee said he couldn't as he hadn't had enough practice.

i'm sure they pulled a new bike out for the hippy, probably on his second ride round the circuit, one ride both him and nick jefferies broke down within a mile or so of each other. they'd fitted new dunlop toothed cam belts, dunlop had supplied incorrect part number ones that would only run in a loop, not ones that would double back on themselves. they failed with one bike bending valves. (hence pulling out a new bike???)

As you can see i'm a Britten fan died in the wool, just have my reservations on some attitudes now.

[Grumph]

As i said, the Britten is still polarising opinion...easier to be a fan if you weren't in CHCH during the period and able to see the difference between the "One man in a shed" and the reality....When film of an interview with the track announcer at Daytona was shown at a canterbury club night, John at least was a bit apologetic "it makes a better story".....

[Stylo]

I remember giving JB a push with this outlandish looking bike in the early 90's ( '91?) at Ruapuna, after he asked me to give a hand. It wasn't a club race day or anything special back then, just an open gate thing back then. Didn't know him from a bar of soap

I was simply bored that Sunday and went out to Ruapuna for a look in my Nissan Sentra ..

Remember it bumped, stalled, farted and finally roared into life and took off. Full speed and something broke with the forks on the far side of the track, never saw it happen from my viewpoint.

Wish I had the camera, I was only there as a casual bystander, too late now, at least I helped get it going.