BRITTAIN’S GOT TALENT

Sometimes you get lucky. Allan Hitchcock did when he stumbled across a piece of ISDT history

The remarkable off-road skill of Johnny Brittain – and two equally remarkable classic finds...

If there’s one rider who’s inextricably linked to the success of Royal Enfields in off-road competition, it’s surely Johnny Brittain. The son of famous all-rounder Vic, he became one of Britain’s most successful ISDT riders ever, with a staggering 13 Gold Medals picked up over the course of 16 consecutive rides in the event – 15 of them for Royal Enfield. And he was a member of the last British team ever to win the ISDT, in Czechoslovakia in 1953. He was a top trials rider, too, scooping a brace of SSDT, British Experts and Scott Trial wins, and during a glittering career was also British trials champ in 1957. It’s well known that one of Johnny’s works Bullets – adorned with his ‘factory’ registration HNP331 – resides in the National Motorcycle Museum. But many of his works ISDT machines seemed to have vanished with little trace. That’s a shame. But not all of them have disappeared... Earlier this year, Allan Hitchcock got the chance to add a couple more Royal Enfields to the collection owned by the family firm, Hitchcocks Motorcycles. “We’re always keen on buying interesting Enfields,” he says. “A friend of mine was helping a friend of his sell a collection and offered the only two Enfields from the collection to me. I was intrigued, as they had consecutive registration, frame and engine numbers, but I had

no idea what they were. I bought them both anyway and, when we got them back to the workshop, posted some photographs on Facebook. Somebody came back with some period photographs that revealed they were works bikes.” Inspired, Allan researched the history of the two machines. “The engine and frame numbers on both bikes are in good condition, but neither appear on the factory despatch records. That alone points to them being works bikes. Both bikes are registered in 1964 – we have the original log books, so it was easy to check with period reports from the ISDT. Both are Big Head Bullets – a model that had been discontinued the previous year when the Fury was the last model to use the Big Head engine. And it turns out that both bikes were built to contest the 1964 ISDT – the last one before Enfield pulled the plug on their involvement with the event. BWP 242B was intended for Peter Stirland to ride in the 1964 ISDT and BWP 243B was for Johnny Brittain. But Peter Stirland was injured scrambling a few weeks before the ISDT and had to withdraw from the Vase A team; Greeves rider Triss Sharp stepped in to replace him. Later, though, the bike was ridden by Enfield teamster Peter Fletcher. But Johnny Brittain suffered no such misfortune. Aboard 243B he completed what would turn out to be his final ISDT at Erfurt, East Germany, finishing with a flourish by claiming his 13th ISDT Gold Medal and helping the British Trophy team to a commendable second place behind the host nation. Johnny Brittain actually campaigned the bike with leading link forks in the 1964 ISDT, though he rode it in the Welsh Two Day that year with teles and reverted to them after the ISDT. It still wears them now. At the end of the season, Johnny retired from serious competition to concentrate on building up his motorcycle dealership, but he later bought the bike from the factory and sold it on in 1967, buying it back in 1969 before selling it on again. After that, the bike disappeared from the radar again – until it surfaced in that collection. Now, Allan has plans to restore it so another piece of ISDT – and Royal Enfield – history can live again. “We’re after any period ISDT parts we can find to make the restoration as authentic as possible,” says Allan. “If anyone can come up with any we’d be pleased to buy them.” Finding the correct ISDT parts might be tricky, but so too is the question of how to restore the bike. “I’m not sure whether to go for a concours resto, or to recreate the patina of a well-used six-day trial bike,” Allan confesses. “It would be nice to have it looking just as it was when Johnny signed off from his last ISDT ride.” Either way, it will be a fitting tribute to one of Great Britain’s top ISDT riders – of any era.