ing in Victoria accompanied by
the owner's simple yet terrifying
words of "don't crash it."
Back then, the Britten had a
one million New Zealand dollar
insurance policy ($649,500)
slapped on it. According to the
inflation calculator on the New
Zealand Reserve Bank web
-
site, that money in 2010 would
equate to
about $1.3 million NZ
in today's money, or $844,300
U.S.
Kevin bought the Britten off
the factory in the 1990s for "the
price of a good house" and sold
the bike just before his death for
a rumored, unconfirmed amount
of around half a million dollars.
It's vague, I know, but you can
guarantee the amount he sold
it for would have been at least
two or three times what he paid
for it.
More recently, Honda re
-
leased the MotoGP-replica
RC213V-S
which retailed (if you
could get one) for $100,000 in
2015. A few days ago I was up
A
bout 13 years ago, I got
the incredibly rare op-
portunity to ride a Britten.
Owned
by the late Kevin Grant,
a man who made a fortune in
agriculture machinery in the ru-
ral outreaches of New Zealand,
the Britten
was handed to me on
stone cold slicks in a fall morn
-
P122
CN III LOWSIDE
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
MOTORCYCLE
INVESTING
Sometimes, bikes are more than just
two-wheeled fun machines.
A first-year model Suzuki
Hayabusa is now hot property
in the collectables market.
