A speed demon is aiming to become the fastest Brit on two wheels by hitting a terrifying 250mph – on a HARLEY DAVIDSON.
Adrenaline junkie Paul Anderson, 56, has teamed up with colleagues at aerospace firm Airbus to build the 250bhp beast.
They took a standard Harley Davidson V-Rod model and increased the engine from 1,150cc to 1,550cc engine and fitted a turbocharger and intercooler.
The team used the high-tech facilities at Airbus to make the bike as aerodynamic as possible.
It is hoped the machine will reach 250mph – comfortably smashing the current British record of 222mph held by Jarrod ‘Jack’ Frost on his 1,300cc Suzuki Hayabusa.
Paul, of Bradley Stoke, Bristol, said: ”We’re feeling totally confident about breaking the record, our team has a total of ten people including physicists and we’ve done the maths.
”The bike is supremely quick, it will accelerate from 0-60mph in less than two seconds and by three seconds it will be doing over 100mph.”
Riding at these speeds requires supreme skill and experience with Paul revealing the bike – known as Svarog after the Slavic god – can wheel-spin at any speed.
But despite the risk involved, Paul, who has shelled out #75,000 of his own money on the bike, remains undaunted by the task.
He said: ”Riding a bike to work is the most dangerous thing you can do, there hasn’t been a fatality in UK bike record attempts.
”We take safety very seriously and while there’s an element of danger I don’t think about it – I’m totally focussed on the event.
”Footballers don’t go out on to a pitch expecting to break their legs.”
The team – called Byzantine Racing – consists of Paul and colleagues Andrija Ekmedzic, Richard Spencer and Garry Morgan.
They plan to break the record at a military airfield in East Anglia next spring – hoping to put the British record ”ten years away from anyone else”.
Paul will ride the bike on two, 1km recorded runs with bike monitored by complex equipment with an average over the two runs counting as the final speed.
The team will then focus their efforts on a streamliner bike, described by Paul as a ”fighter jet without wings” with the intention of setting the world land motorcycle speed record, which currently stands at 375mph.
