Great technical read Ash. 104mph and 34bhp on a prototype 4-stroke twin in the early 70's was good going, no doubt there was more to come.
I know of several completed bikes that 'escaped' from the factory and fell into private hands later on. A couple of magazines have featured road tests of these and all were very positive.
When you consider most of the technical issues had been solved at prototype stage by Doug Hele who was in my opinion the most gifted engineer in terms of British bikes it was a real shame the lacklustre management of the day persistent faith in pouring funds that could have been used to productionise the Bandit instead of funding dead ends such as the Aerial 3 wheeler.
A book I would recommend to any bike fan is Bert Hopwood's 'Whatever happened to the British motorcycle industry' a brilliant read. The engineers were there ready and waiting, unfortunately the management were only interested in quick returns. A bit like Dragons Den on the TV!