Wayne Alexander

Voice of Britten Motorcycles, Designer extra-ordinaire and Climber of Mt Everest with Mark Inglis.

Wayne ran the Britten Race team in Europe in the early 1990’s until John Britten died of cancer in 1995. Britten Motorcycles is still at the forefront of design and innovation and is now involved in making prototypes of engines and mopeds, and has made prosthetic limbs for the Paralympic cyclists. The company became well know for the innovative design and manufacture of the artificial legs which Mark Inglis used to make his return climb to Mount Cook, 20 years after losing his legs to frostbite on that same mountain and in May 2006 Wayne climbed Mount Everest with Mark Inglis. Wayne was involved in the making of the prototype of Invercargill’s Bert Munro’s motorcycle for the film “the Fastest Indian” and involved in the film shooting in Salt Lake City, Utah USA.

Wayne is the voice of Britten Motorcyles in Christchurch. His engineering career began when he served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. He left the services in 1984 and then worked in retail for 6 years. In 1993 he was overseas and ran the Britten Racing Team at the Isle of Man In 1994 he ran the Britten Race team in Europe. In 1994 he joined John Britten full time and became very involved in ‘Cathedral Junction’ – a real estate re-development project in Christchurch that John was very passionate about. After John Britten died of cancer on 5th September 1995, Wayne became involved with the Britten Trust which eventually oversaw the completion and sale of the development. Wayne started working full time as Manager at the Britten workshop in Christchurch in 1997. John’s wish was to make and sell 10 Britten motorcycles and after his death the workshop under Wayne’s guidance completed the remaining two - number 9 and number 10 which were sold to owners in South Africa and America. Brittan Motorcycles is still at the forefront of design and innovation and is now involved in making prototypes of engines and mopeds, and has made prosthetic limbs for the Paralympics cyclists, some of which now can be seen in Te Papa in Wellington. The company became well know for the innovative design and manufacture of the artificial legs which Mark Inglis used to make his return climb to Mount Cook, 20 years after losing his legs to frostbite on that same Mountain. Wayne then went on to climb Mt Everest with Mark Inglis. On his return, he worked on the prototypes for the motorcycles featured in the movie “The World’s Fastest Indian”