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So I was watching a TV show the other day and the main character came across his grandfather's old motorcycle in the garage, a bike I had never heard of before called the "Brough Superior" (pronounced like "rough"). I of course thought that this was a purely fictitious bike but a little poking around the internet brought up this interesting bit of history;


This is a picture of a 1933 Brough Superior SS80. They were called the "Rolls Royce of motorcycles", as each was hand assembled in England. They came in two flavors: the SS80 and the SS100: which designated that the individual bike had been tested at or above 80 and 100 miles per hour, respectively. Remember, this is before World War II, with springer front ends and no rear suspension.

What is the one thing that ties this interesting looking vintage bike to out FZR's and even the modern superbikes being produced today? At first you might think it has something to do with racing, or some obscure styling reference to early Yamahas or something but it's even simpler than that:

The Brough Superior was the first motorcycle in history to employ a sidestand.

Yep. So next time you pull up to your garage and get ready to call it a day, as you park your bike without having to run around looking for the rearstand to put it on or finagle with one of those center stands from the 70's Yamahas (oh yeah, did I mention they invented the ride-off center stand, too?) be sure to say a quick thank you to the Brough Superior Motorcycle Company for that one little thing that still makes motorcycling easier today.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

(For continued reading, here's the Wikipedia Article)

Lawrence of Arabia (Thomas Edward Lawrence) was killed on a Brough SS100.

His death sparked a doctor to investigate and recommend helmet use by British military riders.


Jay Leno has a few Broughs. He had Orange County Choppers build a bike with a Brough as a model. They, of course built a high necked pile(hemmorhoid) driver bike:




The look of disgust/disappointment that flashes across his face when they unveil the bike on-stage is priceless, tho being a good showman, he covered it well.


I posted a while back about how Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List) was a pretty accomplished road racer before WWII. A book I read about him goes into that pretty deeply.

..there's some interesting history tied to motorcycling.

Rolls Royce got in a strop when Brough started using the "2 wheeled Rolls Royce" slogan. In order to settle this they sent some gentleman heavies to the Brough factory to kick their heads in. However, upon arrival they were astonished to find Brough engineers assembling the bikes wearing white cotton gloves. RR relented and allowed brough to continue using the RR reference.

T.E. Lawrence, famous homosexual arab fan, was indeed reputed to have been killed while riding an SS100. Alas, like the death of Kennedy, mystery and conspiracy surround the incident and it's a pretty open verdict as to whether he died of the riding-dumbs, or was murdered. Either way, about a dozen people now claim to own the bike upon which he met his rather sticky end.

But if you think the Brough is cool, have a look at the Vincent Black Shadow. Now that was a bike to get us young Brits all moist in the early 70's!

That OCC "Brough" bike is horrendous. They took Jay's money and left the building. I know Jay would not have appreciated that at all...

If you haven't already, watch the "Harley Davidson" documentary from the Biography Channel (get it from racing-undergound.com). It tells of how many little guys were building bikes all influencing the modern day motorcycle. I have no idea how any of them pieced bike together with so few tools.

darrin

Alright, who's got an invitation code for me?