Posted by Bill Nelson who is a senior member of the BSAOC UK.
The 2 bikes Chris & I had at Brooklands were production bikes and we were selected to do the test rides on site. At no point were we asked to take it easy.
The only constraint we both felt arose from the dire warnings of disaster promulgated by others who had "done the hill" - 1:8 to 1:5 to 1:4; if you stall we'll chock your wheel & help you turn around (!!!); shut off before the top as if you overshoot you'll take off & miss the sharp right turn to get onto the track down.
As is well known and medically verified, I very rarely pump adrenalin. This time I most certainly did.
I'll leave Chris to tell his tale.
On my first run, I watched a number of heroes on really powerful bikes producing a variety of results, so I decided to play safe and hook 2nd & see how it went. As instructed, I shut off just before the crest & the engine braking all but stopped the bike & I was amazed to see plenty of room and a right turn easier than any uphill right out of a small side road.
2nd run, I was following a highly customised street fighter, giving it good with the paddock blips with added bonus of a straight through pipe. Sadly, when he gave it 5k & dropped the clutch, it bogged down. At that point, I decided to do a 1st gear run.
Knowing the engine has a flat torque curve, courtesy of Ashish's inspired camshaft, I held 2500 on the clock as the Marshall tapped 3-2-1-GO on my shoulder. A twist of the grip and a simple drop the clutch had me leaning forwards to keep the front wheel down. I gave it full beans and saw 40mph on the speedo, before I started thinking about the top. I don't know what speed I actually reached or what the elapsed time was, but I know for sure there was at least another second to be shaved off as I still managed well within margin at the top.
For absolute confirmation the power delivery and torque were pure straight line.
