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The
final fate of the Brough Superior which belonged to Lawrence of Arabia
has long been a favourite topic of debate.
Now we can reveal where it is! Lawrence of Arabia loved his motorcycling and his motorcycle. 'A skittish motorbike,' he said; 'with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. Because Boa' - Boa was Lawrence's pet name for his Brough - 'loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him.' Now the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire, UK, has announced a major new exhibit which will be joining its Hall of Fame: Lawrence of Arabia's Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle. The Brough, which has been loaned to the Museum by its current owner, is considered to be the one on which Lawrence had his fatal accident on May 13th, 1935. Finding it, and bringing it to the Museum has not been an easy task.
It has been a two and a half year labour of love for Beaulieu's motorcycle expert Frank Levy to bring the Brough to Beaulieu, after he found himself sat next to the bike's owner at a motorcycle gathering in London in 2001. Frank Levy said: 'It is brilliant to get an original motorcycle like the Brough, but this one with its celebrated provenance is outstanding. Broughs were the pre-war Rolls-Royce of motorcycles and were mostly custom made, as was Lawrence's. He was quite a short man and he had the back wheel made smaller to accommodate his short legs.' TE Lawrence, immortalised as Lawrence of Arabia, had an unceasing passion for motorcycles and, like so many other men of his generation, began riding during the First World War. Following the publication of 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' Lawrence bought his first Brough Superior, a 1922 Mark 1, thus beginning a long association with the marque and its owner, George Brough. Lawrence named his Broughs 'Boanerges', meaning 'sons of thunder', and called them George I, George II, and so on. George VIII was ready for collection at the time of Lawrence's death. Lawrence's last motorcycle (George VII aka GW 2275, built in 1932), was fitted with all the best Brough Superior equipment of the day. In particular it was equipped with the Bentley & Draper rear suspension system, Castle Brampton front forks, Royal Enfield brakes and Lucas electrical equipment. Its engine number was 22000/S and its frame number was 1041.S. The machine sported an Amal 1.1/16-inch carburettor and a Jaeger 120mph speedometer. Lawrence was famed for giving that speedo plenty of exercise in his high-speed dashes along the lanes of England - in fact he broke it more than once! 'The burble of my exhaust unwound like a long cord behind me,' he reported. 'Soon my speed snapped it, and I heard only the cry of the wind my battering head split and fended aside. The cry rose with my speed to a shriek while the air's coldness streamed like two jets of iced water into my dissolving eyes... The next mile of road was rough. I braced my feet into the rests, thrust with my arms, and clenched my knees on the tank til its rubber grips goggled under my thighs... The bad ground was passed and on the new road our flight became birdlike.' Frank Levy still considers Lawrence's riding to be a considerable feat: It was made for a man who loved motorbikes and he is supposed to have ridden 500 miles a day on it.' There can be no doubt that Lawrence was besotted with his Brough and the exhilaration it afforded him. It was; 'the silkiest thing I have ever ridden' he said. 'At 50 she is a dream. She is extraordinarily fast, with a following wind and downhill I got over the hundred on Easter Monday in the New Forest.' And yes - if you have noticed - Lawrence initially referred to Boa in female terms but later switched to calling the bike 'him' or 'it'.
The chrome and black Brough cost T E Lawrence £170 when he bought it in 1932 but today it is priceless. Despite the 25,000 or more miles they covered together, and a few dents - the legacy of that fatal crash near Clouds Hill in Dorset nearly 70 years ago - the Brough still looks impressive. All through the latter months of 1934 and the first part of 1935 Lawrence planned to take George VII back to Brough for some much-needed maintenance, but he found it hard to make time for the trip. The one early summer's day in May 1935, Lawrence was riding the Brough back home from Bovington in Dorset to his nearby cottage at Clouds Hill. Suddenly he came upon two boy cyclists, possibly obscured from view by a passing car; fatally swerving to avoid them he pitched over the handlebars onto the road. Like most riders of the time he was not wearing a helmet, and so sustained a serious head injury which left him in a coma and claimed his life some six days later. No one who knew TE Lawrence could have been too surprised by his end. George Bernard Shaw, who contributed towards the Brough's cost as a present to Lawrence, commented on his friend's mania for speed and is reported to have summed up his gift thus: 'It was like handing a pistol to a would-be suicide.' The strength of the Brough protected it from major damage -- the footpegs were bent, saddle grazed, the headlamp rim came off, the kickstarter and gearchange levers were bent -- and following the accident it was repaired by George Brough himself. If you look closely at the bike in the Museum then the damage done to the handlebars and front mudguard can still clearly be seen to this day. Since the accident and its subsequent repair, Lawrence's Boa has rarely been exhibited in public. Now visitors to the National Motor Museum will be able to see this legendary bike for themselves displayed in a special exhibition case, complete with other Lawrence memorabilia within the Museum's Hall Of Fame. People To Speak To: The National Motor Museum Email info@beaulieu.co.uk
Article taken from the online classic bike magazine www.realclassic.co.uk
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