American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 173 December 2013 | Page 16

Iconic Brough Superior
brand to make comeback?
NE of the genuine
legends of 20th Century
motorcycle design and
performance, the Brough
Superior, is set to make a
comeback in the hands of
Switzerland based British
entrepreneur Mark Upham.
Upham bought the rights to the
brand name when they were put up for
auction in 2007, three years before
Brough Superior motorcycles and JAP
engine brand name owner Alec Card
died.
Brough Superior was considered
the premium motorcycle brand of the
1920s and 1930s, and although only
some 3,000 were made between
1919 and closure of the business in
1940, the formidable reputation of the
brand has remained undiminished
despite its short-lived glory days.
The cache of Brough Superior
ownership was enhanced not only by
their cost, build quality, and
performance but also by many of the
people who owned and enjoyed them
– from playwright George Bernard
Shaw through to T E Lawrence (AKA
Lawrence of Arabia) who owned seven
or eight of them and met his untimely

O

death on a Brough Superior in a
Dorset, England, country lane in 1935.
The model that first made the
brand’s reputation was the SS100
(Super Sports, 100 mph), and even
though less than 400 were
manufactured between 1924 and
1940, it is still regarded as setting the
Gold Standard in terms of pre WWII
motorcycles.
At the EICMA (‘Milan’) show in Italy
in early November, Mark Upham’s
incarnation of the brand received a
debut that saw a new interpretation of
the SS100 unveiled to considerable
acclaim.
aid to be easily capable of and
individually tuned for handling at
100 mph when it was first unveiled as
a cradle framed OHV v-twin in 1924,
the SS100 shown at EICMA is a liquid
cooled 4-stroke 4 valve per cylinder
DOHC 88 degree v-twin 1000
(actually, 997 cc!) in a steel and
titanium tubular trellis frame.
Featuring Swedish-made Öhlins
suspension and French-made 4-disc
Ceramic Beringer Aerotec brakes with
18 inch 18 spoke wheels front and
rear, the bike weighs in at 180 Kg (395
lb) dry, has a steering angle of 24.6

S

degrees, 96.7 mm trail and a wheel
base of 1,550 mm.
With power said to be between 100
and 140 hp at 10,000 rpm (125 Nm
torque @ 8,000 rpm) and an 11:1
compression ratio, this 21st century
take on the SS100 is no mere retro.
The engine’s cylinders are
integrated into a horizontal seal plan
semi-dry crank case with ECU setups
based on the same attention to
individual customer requests that
characterised the bespoke build
approach that George Brough brought
to all Brough Superior models in their
original heyday.
esign and engineering has been
in collaboration with noted
motorcycle specialist Boxer Design,
based near Toulouse, France, and after
so many motorcycle design successes
in the past 25 years, internationally
respected head of design Thierry
Henriette described the opportunity to
work on the new SS100 as "a dream
come true project."
With Jay Leno's support Upham
took his incarnation of Brough to
Bonneville in 2011 to race
(successfully as it transpired) in the

D

AGV Class, and returned with an
additional second (750cc) bike this
year for equally rewarding cracks at
further landmarks.
The first hand-finished bespoke
'production' examples are expected to
make their way into owners’ hands in
2014, but expect numbers to be low
and prices reassuringly high with saltflat-wide grin-factor!
www.broughsuperior
motorcycles.com

The new SS100 was designed in partnership
with Boxer Design of Toulouse, France

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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - DECEMBER 2013

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