VOL. 52 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2015 P131
amount of torque low down, so
you must use the gears a fair
bit to keep the V-twin engine
revving and the bike motoring,
but that's part of the fun of rid-
ing the new Brough, and it is
indeed a really enjoyable ride.
Though it has an old-style cable
throttle, so there's no choice of
riding modes as would come
with RBW, the low-down map-
ping of the Synerject ECU is
really excellent even at this early
stage of development, with spot-
on fueling delivering a smooth
pickup from a closed throttle,
and a linear power delivery as
revs mount. So when you trail-
brake into a turn as the Fior fork
will allow you to do, the transi-
tion point at which you open the
throttle to start accelerating out
of the bend doesn't betray any
jerky or over-aggressive re-
sponse – just a smooth, almost
syrupy pickup. This may be
partly achieved by the fact that
the actual throttle itself is rather
slow. You need to take two
handfuls for wide-open accelera-
tion, but Thierry Henriette says
that'll be fixed on production
bikes, with a sportier quick-
action throttle installed.
While the new Brough's 88°
V-twin engine may not be super-
potent, it has quite enough
power and especially torque to
thrill – although for really satisfy-
ing acceleration, you need to
get it revving above 5,000 rpm
with the help of the six-speed
transmission's light but positive
gearchange. This transmission
is a delight to use except for the
fact that finding neutral is impos-
sible at rest, and quite hard to
do even on the move. Henriette
is aware of this, though part of
the reason may be the fact the
engine had done relatively few
miles in the chassis by the time I
came to ride it; it may be easier
once everything is loosened up.
But the clutch action is also very
light, making the Brough an easy
bike to ride in town or slow traffic,
where its relatively tight turning ra-
dius makes it agile and practical.
Where the Brough really
comes into its own, though, is
in the way it handles at speed,
where there's a constant remind-
er that you're riding something
completely different (in terms of
front suspension) by the way the
vestigial flyscreen – mounted on
top of the headlamp, which in
turn is attached to the wishbone
fork – rises and falls in front of
you as the special Öhlins shock
operated by the Fior fork eats
"And how would sir
like his Brough?" The
new machines, seen
here at the front of the
Toulouse factory in
France, come in three
different flavors.
