JOHNNY BRITTAIN
Johnny Brittain and Royal Enfield’s Bullet were one of the most successful double acts ever in off-road motorcycling
We salute probably Britain’s most talented ever ISDT trials rider
With Johnny Brittain, it was a case of ‘like father, like son’. His dad, Vic, was one of the UK’S leading pre-world War II motorcycling all-rounders. A top trials rider, 10-times gold medal winner at the ISDT, accomplished scrambler and classy road racer who finished fifth in the 1934 Senior TT, Vic was a natural on a bike. He retired from competition after a final ISDT outing in 1948 – but by then his sons, Johnny and younger brother Pat, were ready to take up where dad left off.
Pat was a good rider, but JV ‘Johnny’ Brittain, was exceptional. Over the course of a stellar 15-year career, Johnny won ISDT gold medals, became British Trials Champion and claimed a brace of victories in both the Scott and Scottish Six Days trials. Along the way, he won just about every top-level trial in the country at one time or another – and he forged a relationship with Royal Enfield that would last for the duration of his riding career.
But that career had the most humble of beginnings. Just as Britain (and Brittain) was starting to get back to something approaching normality after WWII, the entire 1948 trials season was cancelled because of the Suez crisis – just as Johnny was starting to take a real interest in emulating his famous father. Fortunately, the enterprising Wolverhampton Motor Cycle Club hastily organised a series of bicycle trials, for which both Johnny and Pat signed up. The bug bit, and the following year Johnny was back for more – this time on a DMW motorcycle. It seemed he’d inherited more than a touch of his dad’s talent on two wheels, too. Before long, young Johnny had caught the eye of the James factory, who approached him with the loan of a bike. He was a works rider at just 17 years of age.
Johnny repaid James’ faith in him by starting to pick up awards – first at local trials and then at ‘open to centre’ events. And he made the first of many appearances at the 1949 ISDT – held that year in Wales. It was a stunning