Back To News Menu

ONE DAY in 1970 a gentleman came into the Horsman’s showroom in Liverpool and said : “ I believe you are interested in motorcycles. I have a 1934 1150cc Brough Superior I would like to sell.” As soon as I was able, I called at his home a few miles away. The Brough outside covered with rugs and an old carpet.“ I haven’t ridden it for ten years,” said the owner. “My wife says I must get rid of it as it makes the house look common with the bike covered in old rags outside.” The excellent paintwork had faded but there was no rust anywhere. The machine was in its original condition except for a horrid home made dual seat, like a big dead slug.

The owner wanted £100 for it, rather a lot for a motorcycle then. Vintage and veteran cars had begun to rise in value – a vintage Bentley worth £300 in 1960 was now valued at £900 – but motorcycles had not gone mad yet and changed hands at around £50. Still this was a Brough with the very rare Bentley & Draper spring frame, so I did not haggle.The owner was a lecturer in engineering and as I rode away with the Brough in the side car of our big BSA 600cc M21 Box Float, he said: “ Don’t touch the engine , it’s perfect ” He was right, it was sweet as a nut and I never changed a plug or even did the tappets on it.

The Brough stood in the showroom for a few days before I took it home. It attracted little attention. Such funny old things were of no interest, although one or two boys offered us £10 for it as a ‘field bike ’. A very polite, shy young man who had been admiring it said: “Your Brough is very nice, but that dual seat is not right, if I may say so. And I hope you won’t think me impertinent, but I have the correct saddle and pillion for that machine and you are welcome to them if you do perhaps want to make it quite original. Don’t want anything for them of course”.I was very grateful and fitted them at once. The appearance of the Brough was transformed and it even looked happier.
I took the Brough home and stripped it completely. Over the next two years I had the frame and all the cycle parts stove enameled by C & G Finishes in Back Faulkner Street, Liverpool, behind the new Roman Catholic Cathedral. Gus and his partner were artists and master craftsmen of the old school. We sent all our paint jobs and petrol tank repairs to them, and if they saw anything old their eyes lit up.

You did not have to become starry-eyed about a Brough Superior. It was an assembly job after all, a ‘ bitza ’ with a Matchless or JAP engine, castle forks, Royal Enfield hubs, Burman gearbox and clutch, and a Bentley & Draper spring frame if it was not a rigid. But the petrol tank…… “Ah that tank” said an admirer, “is it not the most erotic thing?” Indeed it was, and a Brough would look nothing without it, in black enamel or chrome. It drew the eyes of people who knew nothing about motorcycles but recognized art and style when they saw it, just as you would if you saw the Medici Venus at a bus stop.

Broughs were beautifully finished. Their stove enamelling and chromium plating looked inches deep, and the early nickel-plated Brough’s were glorious things.
I have always though it was a pity that chrome replaced nickel. Nickel plating was softer in its appearance and gave an impression of quality that the harsh chromium did not, although chrome was more durable and stood up to repeated polishing. Even after ten years in the wind and rain, draped in wet blankets, my 1150 was merely faded.

While Gus got on with my Brough’s stove enamelling and completed the hubs, I had the wheels rebuilt by Hacking and Kay, of Blackburn, Lancs, one of the few wheel builders left. Wheel building was becoming a lost art as the old firms closed down for lack of business.The skeleton of the Brough stood on the bench in my garage, slowly growing as Gus enamelled the parts as I took then to him. He did the tank in good time, probably wanting to see it safely away. I was amazed at the result. It was unmarked with new Brough Superior Transfers. The knee grips were quite unmarked and the embossed words ‘Brough Superior’ stood out proudly. The Tank, now safely on a shelf out of the way, urged me to get a move on and finish the job.

I replaced all the Bowden cables, using Lambretta cables because we had so many of them; they were good cables too. There was a junction box under the tank where the throttle cable met the individual cables for the two carburetors and I took particular care with this.The silencer was in excellent condition. Just as well, because it is difficult to gat a silencer re-chromed. The platers don’t like silencers as the carbon contaminates the magic fluid in the plating vats, and you can’t buy a silencer for a 33-year old machine off the shelf. I replaced the exhaust pipes. These could not be re-chromed because of the danger of contamination, but rooting around in stores I found a pair. The veteran parts manager had no idea what they were, except that; “They have been there a long time.”

Although they were not quite right, they were fitted. I re-wired the Brough, a very simple and pleasant task, as the old Lucas 6-volt system had not changed in years.
That finished the job and the Brough started second kick, ran sweetly and steered very well.

I advertised it and sold it at once to a middle-aged man in Oxford. I got £500 for it and just about broke even. A friend in the DVLC made a check recently to find out where OW 5717 is now. It was exported to America long ago.

Before I sold it, a neighbour who was an industrial photographer, father of Wallace and Grommit creator Nick Park, took a photograph of the completed bike and enlarged it to 5ft x 3 ft. It hangs in the garage and when I look at it the cry goes up; “Should have kept that one!”

The lack of interest in and respect for old machinery in those days seems incredible now, but only a few enthusiasts were really keen on the old stuff, for example, in the fifties, Huxhams Motorcycles in Poole, Dorset, had allowed a reluctant £25 on an SS100 Brough a few years earlier, harnessed it to their big box float.
They ran it into the ground collecting and delivering motorcycles.

Taken from Alan Brodricks column, The Classic Bike magazine, August 2003.
Copyright Classic Bike Magazine

Back To News Menu