Wow! Britten VS Raceco Guzzi

[mznyc]

Some of you may have seen this already,pretty cool.Just mute the sound as it's horrible music.Hate music over bike videos!!!If anyone has a link to this with sound please post up.

[John in Leeds]

That WAS impressive. Thanks for posting

[Tom M]

Good stuff Michael!

[Lucky Phil]

This was posted on another Guzzi site a few weeks ago. Paul Lewis was a seriously good rider but at the same time although I love the Britten and have enormous respect for the man that conceived it the truth is it was grossly overrated as a race bike.

It lacked development and had a major design flaw in that it was WAY to  tall to ever handle any good. It doesnt wheelie everywhere because of the power it because the C of G is so high.

I think from memory the last time I say it race at Phillip Island about 15 years ago it was turning 1.42 second laps.About as fast as a good 600 super sport bike at the time.

Interesting video though.

Ciao 

[Gritman]

Niiiiice posting. Such nostalgia, sunny at Brands Hatch

[GuzziMoto]

This was posted on another Guzzi site a few weeks ago. Paul Lewis was a seriously good rider but at the same time although I love the Britten and have enormous respect for the man that conceived it the truth is it was grossly overrated as a race bike.

It lacked development and had a major design flaw in that it was WAY to tall to ever handle any good. It doesnt wheelie everywhere because of the power it because the C of G is so high.

I think from memory the last time I say it race at Phillip Island about 15 years ago it was turning 1.42 second laps.About as fast as a good 600 super sport bike at the time.

Interesting video though.

Ciao

I have actually been on the race track at the same time as Stroud and the Britten, at Daytona. I have seen it in action both from the saddle and from the stands. It was not over-rated, it was stupid fast. The reason the Raceco Guzzi was up there with it was the Raceco Guzzi was also stupid fast and it had a very good rider as well (plus Stroud was biding his time). Were there aspects of it that were not perfect? Yes. Would I have designed the bike the same way? No. But he did it his way and he made it work very well. And talking to John Britten was impressive. While he was way above me in terms of his thinking he was able to talk to someone such as myself and make me feel like 50% of the conversation. Eric Buell can be like that as well.

The Britten was one of the fastest twins of its day. Stroud liked to pull wheelies while waiting for the end of the race when he would put his head down and push for real. Once he put his head down the wheelies all but stopped until he had the race won. I was also hugely impressed by the Raceco Guzzi.

[mznyc]

It was quite impressive watching Lewis ride that thing to it's limits.Shame the Guzzi racing program is dead.Maybe if the new lines are successful Piagggio will re-invest that $ into race development  

I always thought John Britten was brilliant and a revolutionary.Gotta love that ,thumb yer nose to the tradition,attitude .Like most individuals who challenge convention and corporations,it's a long uphill battle to success.(Watch "Tucker"sometime,brilliant movie).But having a vision and putting that dream in motion is only a beginning.Failure is part of the process.Dont think any new idea was finished on it's first try.If John had lived ,I think we would have seen many more great things.The Britten bike worked,it just needed more time to develop.Amazing what he accomplished in a relatively short time without 10's of millions of dollars behind him

[mznyc]

Nice Mini-Documentary on John Britten and his trip to Daytona,other than the rectifier failing that he didnt build he would have beaten a factory bike and rider,.....easily.

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2013/01/three-part-john-britten-biography-video-series-incredible-story-of-a-motorcycle-genius/

[dangerous]

Paul Lewis was a seriously good rider but at the same time although I love the Britten and have enormous respect for the man that conceived it the truth is it was grossly overrated as a race bike.

It lacked development and had a major design flaw in that it was WAY to  tall to ever handle any good. It doesnt wheelie everywhere because of the power it because the C of G is so high.

I think from memory the last time I say it race at Phillip Island about 15 years ago it was turning 1.42 second laps.About as fast as a good 600 super sport bike at the time.

Interesting video though.

Ciao 

what a load a cods wallop man, why you believe such crap I dont know... 

heres a little info reguarding that race, the Britten was and is a farking fast machine that handled briliantly

 

"Read the book... it's not what it looks like. Stroud had been asked to make it look good so backed right off out of sight of the stands. Louie apparently had no idea what was going on....

Tim Hanna quotes Stroud as saying Cathcart was trying to promote the class and asked if he'd make a race of it.

Stroud agreed. Page 421 for your ref"

[Guzzirider]

I remember watching Paul Lewis wrestling that monster of a Guzzi in horribly wet conditions at Thruxton. I really wanted that bike.

 

In 2007, when I was overtaken on the Park Straight at Cadwell by the Raceco Daytona during a track day, I really wanted that bike. I had felt its presence for a few bends prior, and when it blitzed past me it was like the apocolypse, the ground shaking like an earthquake, blasting my face with a wall of thunder as it disappeared into the distance. My friend Bruce who owned it at the time had detuned it to about 140bhp at the wheel so he could use a starter motor, but it was still a missile.

 

The Raceco Daytona is now road registered, and lives in Scotland. I could not afford it when it was up for sale a couple of years ago, so Bruce kindly made me one of my own. Frame mods are the same so the wheelbase is 2.5 inches shorter than stock, motor is 1225cc, weight about 200kgs wet. Not a exact replica, more of an interpretation.

 

[Guzzirider]

P.S. Massive respect to the Britten- lets raise a glass to men in sheds who have a vision!

[Baldini]

P.S. Massive respect to the Britten- lets raise a glass to men in sheds who have a vision!

 

  

[dangerous]

140? I thought that impossable from a air head, and thats detuned, what was it pulling and how the hell they get that out of it? its more than the MGS01

 My friend Bruce who owned it at the time had detuned it to about 140bhp at the wheel so he could use a starter motor, but it was still a missile.

[Admin Jaap]

140? I thought that impossable from a air head, and thats detuned, what was it pulling and how the hell they get that out of it? its more than the MGS01

Guinness tuning

[mznyc]

140? I thought that impossable from a air head, and thats detuned, what was it pulling and how the hell they get that out of it? its more than the MGS01

Guinness tuning

Single malt stats