George Brough was a paradox. He was a consummate publicity hound, but “…did not allow his vision to be confused by the demands of experts, the trade, or the press. He built the machine HE wanted to ride…” [The Brough Superior Club’s History]. From the time he broke away from his father’s Brough Motorcycle works in 1919 until his company became a part of the unsalvageable wreckage of World War II, George Brough (rhymes with “gruff”) wanted to be known as the man who built the indisputably greatest motorcycles in the world. He accomplished that by actually building the indisputably greatest motorcycles in the world for twenty-one years.
THE BACKSTORY
George Brough grew up in his father’s motorcycle factory and, like many motorcyclists, started imagining what configuration the ultimate motorcycle would have. If you set out to build the best bike possible, what would it be? George was not only a bright enough engineer to answer that question, but egotistical confident enough to believe his answer was the most proper one. He thought Brough Motorcycles should produce a range of motorcycles that were “of the highest possible specification and performance, without concern of cost.” His father, a rather practical businessman, predictably disagreed. Like many impetuous and fanciful youngsters, George had little interest in the sort of utilitarian, workaday commuter bikes the family business produced. He cashed out his 1/3rd share of Brough Motorcycles to set off to build his own brand. On the suggestion of a local pub patron, he named his new company Brough Superior, to the understandable displeasure of his father. His father could not have been too upset, however, because the first few Brough Superiors were built in his father’s factory while the Haydn Road works in Nottingham was under construction. Brough Superiors incorporated a number of innovative features, but they were largely of conventional design. Most of the components were sourced from (or copies of) other manufacturers’ catalog parts. Brough Superior never manufactured their own production engines, instead sourcing non-proprietary engines from other manufacturers. This was a fairly common practice in the early 20th century, though not ideal in George’s mind. (More on this later.) The first batch of engines was a surplus lot of good-but-not-great OHV V-twins manufactured by J.A.P. years earlier, prior to World War I. But what would set George Brough’s bikes apart was not the components, but meticulous assembly and attention to detail. For example, each bike was completely assembled “in the white,” test ridden, disassembled for painting and finishing, reassembled, then tested again. The flagship performance model was the SS80. “SS” stood for Super Sport, the 80 was the guaranteed top speed. That’s guaranteed, not just warranted; prior to shipment, every SS80 was taken out onto Haydn Road and ridden to an observed 80 MPH. If the bike couldn’t reach that speed, the engine was re-tuned (up to and including a full teardown) until it could. Such quality and craftsmanship led a leading British journalist to describe Brough Superior as “the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles.” From then on, George Brough actively promoted the phrase at every turn.
WHAT HAPPENED
Brough Superiors may have used commonly-available parts, but Brough intended every part to be the very best available. In 1924, J.A. Prestwich introduced their new state-of-the-art KTOR 1000cc V-twin and Brough Superior introduced a new frame design derived from the prior year’s works race bikes. The combination became the basis for a new model, the SS100. The new engine’s 45 horsepower was racing-level power at the time, and the SS100 was widely recognized as being the fastest production motorcycle in the world. Even though George Brough continued to build less exotic models including stout but unexciting police and sidecar models, the aura of the SS80 and SS100 permeated the brand.
WHY IT’S SIGNIFICANT
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