YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT BROUGH Superiors, right? You might recall Colonel TE Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) lost his life riding one of his Brough Superiors – an SS100 he’d named Boanerges (Son of Rage), which was number seven of the eight he owned.
The Brough Superior has been called the “most romantic motorcycle in the world”, the “Rolls-Royce of motorcycles”, and the “world’s finest machine” – all of which may have once been somewhat accurate.
But that “once” was between 1919 and 1940, when George Brough built just 3048 of them, and sold them to the wealthy and self-indulgent. The selling point was the craftsmanship, performance, and the fact that George would tailor the finished bike to the rider.
The company ceased making bikes in 1940 and turned its attention to making cranks for the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. England was at war, and needed Spitfires far more than it needed rich people belting around country lanes at 100-miles-per-hour on bikes that cost a year’s wage and frightening the villagers. When the war ended, the company was unable to source parts of a suitable quality, folded and passed into legend.
In 2008, the brand was bought by Mark Upham. Mark kinda sat on
