The Rolls-Royce Of Motorcycles: All About The Brough Superior SS100

Retro-styled motorcycles like the Janus Halcyon 450 and Kawasaki W800 are hot commodities at the moment, but nothing beats the real thing when it comes to classic engineering and styling. Englishman, George Brough had worked for his father — William Brough, owner of Brough Motorcycles. George had been building motorcycles since he was a young lad, and won multiple racing titles, before starting his own factory in 1919. According to Silodrome, when George proposed calling his company "Brough Superior," his father responded, "I suppose that makes mine the Brough Inferior!" William obviously maintained a sense of humor and supported his son, as he sent George off with his £1,000 share of the family business, which George used to buy land in Nottingham and build his workshop.

The first Brough Superior, the SS80, was ready for Christmas 1920 and built by hand to George's personal specifications; refinements and improvements were made over the next few years, and the SS100 was introduced in 1924. The previous year, journalist H.D. Teague had described the Brough Superior as "The Rolls-Royce of motorcycles," a characterization the automaker had not taken kindly to initially. George invited representatives from Rolls-Royce to his factory, and when they saw how clean the facilities were and how much care his assembly technicians took in building the bikes, they allowed him to use the slogan in his advertising.

[Featured Image by Matti Blume / Freisteller via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled| CC-By 4.0]

Brough joined forces with Swiss racer and tuning wizard Bert le Vack to make a V-twin engine that would outperform the ones from Harley-Davidson and Indian. Page and le Vack built a 986cc engine that would be known as the "Super Big Twin," but in 1924, le Vack and Brough went to work on a new bike, built with an assortment of parts, including a Harley front fork, and powered by a specially tuned 867cc Super Big Twin. Le Vack rode this bike to a new speed record of 118.93mph, and the SS100 made its debut in the 1925 Brough Superior catalog. It was initially offered in three versions: the standard SS100, the SS100 AGS, or Alpine Grand Sports, and the SS100 Pendine, named after Pendine Sands in Wales. 

Engines ranged in size from 980cc to 996cc depending on the model, and each customer visited the factory to be measured for a custom fit and select their options. A three-speed Sturmey-Archer transmission with chain drive was standard until 1935, when Brough switched to a four-speed Norton gearbox. The AGS version came with a sprung frame, though buyers of the other versions could opt for an unsprung version. Every SS100 buyer got a written guarantee that their bike could go faster than 100 mph.

[Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

One of those customers was British Colonel, T.E. Lawrence, commonly known as "Lawrence of Arabia." Lawrence owned seven Brough bikes, including four SS100s, and he died after a 1935 crash while riding on one of those SS100s. Lawrence's death prompted Australian neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, one of the medics who treated him at the crash site, to push for the use of helmets for motorcyclists. In 1946, Cairns wrote in the British Medical Journal that "there can be little doubt that adoption of a crash helmet as standard wear by all civilian motorcyclists would result in considerable saving of life, working time and the time of hospitals."

By the time of Lawrence's crash, other manufacturers had begun to catch up with Brough in terms of performance. His company built about 3,000 bikes in total, of which fewer than 400 were SS100s. Only about 80 of those have survived to this day.

The SS100's combination of quality craftsmanship and performance landed it a spot on SlashGear's list of 12 highly desirable classic motorcycles, but if you weren't around nearly a century ago for its first production run, you now have another chance to ride one of these coveted machines.  

[Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons| Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

George Brough died at age 79 in 1970, but former Triumph and Ducati dealer Mark Upham purchased the Brough Superior brand in 2008 and resurrected the SS100 nameplate for the 2017 model year. The new SS100 takes at-least one design inspiration from the original Pendine model in the form of the triple-strap fuel tank. The 120-horsepower V-twin engine — built by Akira Engineering in Bayonne, France — is another tribute to the original SS100.

The new SS100's frame and swingarm are made from a combination of titanium, aluminum, and magnesium, while the wheels are carbon-fiber. Both the front and rear suspension are built by Öhlins, and the front fork is a BMW Duolever model. Paul D'Orleans of Cycle World test-rode one on the Mediterranean coast between France and Spain and was suitably thrilled. "The power is yeehaw-level good," he wrote, "but not insane—let's just say passing traffic wasn't even a thought, and clear roads offered breathtakingly fun motorcycling, with super secure handling, a great noise, and the stunning looks of the bike." At £45,000 (about $60,000), the new SS100 is much more affordable than the rare classic version, which can fetch more than $500,000 at auction.