The Legend of John Britten and the Britten V1000

[Guth_imp]

Just in case any of you have not before seen the documentary about John Britten titled "1 Man's Dream" I feel obligated to mention it here. (It's a shame that it appears to have been wiped from YouTube — apparently a video distributor bought the rights to it.)

If you enjoyed the video shared in the original post and have not seen 1 Man's Dream, know that you would likely find it beyond mesmerizing. Yet it explore facets of Britten's story that go well beyond his pure mechanical genius as the odds that John Britten overcame involved so much more than solving problems that were purely technical in nature.

When this documentary still existed out on YouTube it was spread out over four parts. I can't remember what exactly caught me eye (It has been many years since I saw it) but there was something in the first part that I thought my wife (who does not care about motorcycles let alone like them) would find interesting. I was right, she did. Then she had me start the video from the beginning as she wanted to see it. She ended up watching all four parts with me. I can't tell you just how rare it is for a film (or a story of any kind) to reach me at the deepest level as both a gearhead and a person. For a film to not only reach those depths inside of me, but to also stir interest deep inside of my wife who is the opposite of me in so many ways, is near miraculous. Not surprisingly, that's pretty much how I would describe the V1000 motorcycle that Britten created.

[max]

How about this link Guth?

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/britten...onary-1993

In five parts....

[Guth_imp]

Thanks max! This appears to be an abbreviated version of the content that once existed on YouTube (I can't recall exactly how long that one was in total but I feel confident that it was well over an hour's worth of content). But this is definitely far better than the void that was left on YouTube so I will be sure to check it out. Much appreciated!

[Cormanus]

At the end of [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13599&pid=221784#pid221784]this post are some photos of a Britten bike I took in the museum in Wellington, NZ. Just fabulous.

[Guth_imp]

Out of respect to PowerDub's multicyl thread, I split this content off into a thread of it's own. If the subject of John Britten and the V1000 that he created is not worthy of a dedicated thread then I'm not sure what else would qualify (except for maybe Honda's CB1100).
Cormanus, thanks for sharing! I hope that you don't mind me reposting your images here in this thread. They are spectacular — simply wonderful. I have seen a V1000 just once in my life while attending the original "The Art of the Motorcycle" at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC back in 1998. Unfortunately I have no photos from that show as our attendance there was purely coincidental. (Likely one of the dumbest strokes of luck that I've ever had.) Unless I am mistaken, I believe that they still have one of the remaining V1000's at the Barber Museum.

[Cormanus]

Don't mind at all, Guth.

Max, thanks for that link. It's a great David and Goliath story ...

[Guth_imp]

Don't mind at all, Guth.

Max, thanks for that link. It's a great David and Goliath story ...

Boy isn't that the truth.

A few years back my wife and I attended one of the seemingly endless string of beer festivals to be found in our city. As it was a beer festival, we took public transportation. Heading back home on the train to catch the bus, we struck up a conversation with a couple that was visiting from out of the country. When I asked where they were from they replied New Zealand. At that point I asked them if they were familiar with John Britten.

As it turned out, these folks were not motorcyclists, nor were they really all that interested in motorcycles. But as soon as I mentioned John Britten we were all fast friends. They were very familiar with his story and justifiably proud of what he had accomplished — which I thought was incredibly cool. We ended up talking for quite a while while waiting for the bus to come and my wife and I ultimately hopped off of the bus with them so that we could direct them to one of the many food carts in the area that they had read about while still back home. We ended up exchanging names, numbers and addresses with them before going our separate ways. All thanks to the legacy of Mr. Britten. Good stuff.