Brooklands Test Hill Conquered!

On 2 July 2023, this formidable mount was successfully scaled by not one, not two, but by three standard Sopwiths! Without any artificial aids such as supercharging or trials-tyres or doped fuel!
And to demonstrate that this was no fluke achievement, the three intrepid mahouts repeated their performance later in the day!
Congratulations are surely in order to "EK", "NC", and "BF" !

what gear were you in and did you take off at the top

I only got into third: the braking-parachute deployed prematurely, but this limited the airborne flight at the crest.  

I managed to get into third on the Inter which is at least 60mph and managed to slow down on the gears to first at the top to avoid flying.  Even so the time was 8 seconds so the parachute was unnecessary.

Changing back down is a sissy luxury denied riders of real machines, which demand the unavoidably slow process of double-declutching.

Paul,

I assumed that as you were able to change up to third with no difficulty the problem must be with the lack of engine braking on a real man's machine.  When I drove my 1934 Morris Minor up all the way up the hill in first gear it was only necessary to close the throttle on the 1 in 4 to slow down to a walking pace at the top, no need for brakes let alone a parachute.