The Jockey Journal

[paul edwards]

The passion of Burt Munro is one of true grit and determination.  Anyone who wasn't moved by the movie  "The Worlds fastest Indian"  doesn't have a pulse.
l found this site whilst researching for a historic bike l was about to do some signwriteing on.  I stumbled on these rare images of Burt.  WOW, Awesome, brilliant images.  Enjoy....  http://www.jockeyjournal.com/?p=710

The world needs more people like Burt Munro.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1878393113/


Cheers Paul

[colcol]

Every car\bike fanatic should watch this film, the old cars from the era is great, give it a go and Bobs your Uncle, you will feel better, Colin.

[Paul Gulliver]

Not a bad performance by Hanibal, er my mean Anthony Hopkins either

[colcol]

And about 20 years ago he was in a film called Spotswood, about a factory in Melbourne he has to turn around to make money, and all the blokes there want to do is build a Grand Prix car to win a Grand prix, while at work!, for slot car racing, i only seen it once, almost as good as The Worlds Fastest Indian, Colin.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

If you think Burt Munro was cool (and he was extremely cool), you need to find out about a fellow Kiwi (and one inspired by Burt), John Britten.

Brtitten built a motorbike in his shed which was incredibly cutting-edge for 20 years ago, and still looks incredible, to beat the might of the Ducati factory in the Battle of the Twins racing series.



He built pretty much the entire bike himself, including the engine (in his shed), and the carbon-fibre wheels (this was 1991).  I was a mad-keen biker at the time, and the local Museum of NZ had one of his bikes on permanent display, me and my mates would go at least once a week just to perve at it's magnificence.  To keep the surface area to a minimum the engine is a stressed member so there is no chassis, and the radiator, usually put in the airflow directly in front of the engine, is mounted horizontally under the seat.


The guy was a freakin legend, but he sadly died of cancer at 45.  If he hadn't died, I think the whole world would have heard of him by now.  I believe his next project was to make an affordable light aircraft, and you better believe he would have achieved that goal too.  There was a great documentary made about him, which can be found on youtube in various parts.  Here is the first part, you can link to the rest from that one.  Long, but well worth it.

There's a great part in it when they're in Daytona for the big race and (just going on an 18 year old memory here) in qualifying the bike puts a conrod through the side of the engine, and they have till the next day to be ready for the race.  And this is on an engine which he built himself in his shed, so not much chance of finding parts on the other side of the world.  Compelling stuff.

I'll say it again, he built his own carbon-fibre wheels in his shed, in 1991.  And won races on them.  And set speed records on them.  It took many years before some of the biggest wheel manufacturers in the world were doing the same thing.  Freakin legend.  Here's a short youtube taster of the bike and the man, do yourself a favour and watch....

And here's the trailer for the documentary...

I remember at the time that my favourite motorbike magazine was doing a piece on what sort of technology bikes may have in the future.  At the end of the article they said, to paraphrase, "We were going to do an illustration here of what a bike may look like with 20 years more technology, but instead, here's the Britten, because we think this is 20 years more advanced than any bike out there at the moment..."   And he built it in his shed.  Legend.

In case you couldn't tell, I reckon this bloke was a dead-set legend.

[aggie57]

Sadly the movie of Burt focused on one particular event (as it would have to given the practicalities of movie making and length) but I think it's fair to say that the true story took over many years in and around Invercargill, in his little house and on the surrounding roads and beaches.  That guy was both a genius and a freak.  If anyone knows where we can get hold of the copy of the 1971 documentary "Burt Munro: Offerings to the God of Speed" let me know.

Alister