Video: Brown Noise

Have you ever heard the expression ‘brown noise?’ It’s a frequency that triggers involuntary bowel movements and, I nearly reached that point myself yesterday.

We were in an adjoining dyno room when it suddenly sounded like the World had begun to end. I grabbed some ear defenders and nipped next door where Fred Walmsley was running up a brand new G50 Matchless classic racer for a customer before handing over the bike. That’s the new owner in the green jumper.

This video, sadly, doesn’t capture what the air was doing inside this tiny test cell but I can tell you, at full chat this G50 was pulsating the atmosphere to such a degree it nearly took your breath away - an assault on the chest cavity. Note how, even with ear defenders on, Fred is pressing them to his head for even more protection.

Revving to a dizzy 8,500rpm it made a peak of 52bhp. Not bad when you consider the factory G50s were making only 36bhp at the end of the 1960s. But this is no ordinary G50, there’s probably more titanium and magnesium on (and in) this thing than there is on a current WSB bike. 

Rumbaaaaarrrr.

By mark forsyth