The Iconic Brough Superior SS100

Brough Superior SS100: Rolls-Royce Quality. Superbike Performance. - Shannons Club
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Brough Superior SS100: Rolls-Royce Quality. Superbike Performance.
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Super Models
By MarkOastler - 17 September 2025
Image: https://en.wheelsage.org/
By the 1920s Rolls-Royces reputation for producing the best car in the world was beyond question. So, when burgeoning British motorcycle manufacturer Brough Superior was famously described at the time as the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles it was warmly embraced by a wealthy upper-class clientele that wanted to own a motorcycle that was also superior to any rival: the SS100.
Company founder George Brough naturally started using the phrase in his sales literature, which was originally quoted from a road test in The Motorcycle by journalist H.D. Teague when testing one of Brough Superiors models in 1923.
Rolls-Royce management was hostile to anyone enhancing their brand in this way and was soon knocking on Broughs door to voice its disapproval. However, after George provided a guided tour of his spotless facility, in which staff wearing white coats and gloves were hand-assembling motorcycles with surgical precision, the Rolls-Royce representatives were so impressed they endorsed his continued use of the phrase!
As all Brough Superior SS100 bikes were made bespoke to customer order, there are many variations possible and it has been said that no two were identical, writes Silodromes Jon Branch.
When a customer came in to order a Brough the process was very much like that experienced by a customer who went to one of Londons best gunmakers. The customer was measured as if for a custom gun or Saville Row suite. The shape, length and position of the handlebars and controls were custom fitted to the customer, so the bike would feel like it fit them like a glove because it was made to do so.
The Brough Superior SS100 was the zenith of motorcycling for much of the 1920s and 30s.
Image: www.brough-superior-motorcycles.com
The SS100 (or Super Sports) represents the pinnacle of Brough Superior. It was not only hand-assembled using the finest components with meticulous attention to detail, but was also its best-handling and fastest model. As its name promised, each SS100 could achieve a top speed of at least 100mph (160km/h) which by 1920s standards seriously put the Super in Super Sports!
It was the fastest production motorcycle in the world at the time. Esteemed motorcycle journalist/racer Alan Cathcart can attest to its capabilities, having briefly owned a 1937 SS100 in the early 1970s. Its performance was still astounding then, despite its pre-war origins.
You can imagine what happened the first time I took the Brough for a ride, he told The Motorcyclist. On a downhill stretch of A2 headed toward Dover, I did the magic Ton on a bike for the first time. Even after the road flattened, the needle on the 120-mph Smiths speedometer still flickered well into the triple digits. The SS100 was a true ton-up motorcycle—and the first real superbike.
Naturally, this refinement and performance came at an elite price of around 170 - when you could buy a modest cottage in Britain for 200! However, George Broughs skill in creating a niche product that would appeal to Britains upper classes was profound, which ensured healthy demand from wealthy clients willing to pay handsomely for such esteemed status.
Brough Superior produced numerous models prior to its SS era, starting with the 1920 Mark 1.
Image: www.brough-superior-motorcycles.com
A Superior Brough
George Brough started working for his father William E. Brough in the familys W.E. Brough & Co Nottingham motorcycle manufacturing business established in 1908, where he became well educated in all aspects of motorcycle design and manufacture.
George was also a talented rider with a need for speed. Hed started competing in 1906 at the age of 16 when still at school and soon made a name for himself, winning numerous gruelling high-profile events including a gold medal performance in the 1912 Scottish Six Days Trial.
Therefore, it was inevitable that father and son would clash on the future direction of W.E. Brough, which was known for producing solid but staid motorcycles with 500cc flat-twins.
George envisaged a unique British take on the latest Harley-Davidson and Indian US imports with their powerful V-twins but built to, well, superior standards.
George left the family business when in his late 20s and established his own modest manufacturing facility also in Nottingham in 1919. Its reported that when William Brough was told George was going to call his motorcycles Brough Superior, he jokingly responded by saying: I suppose that makes mine Brough Inferior!
George Brough was inspired by contemporaneous V-twins from the US when he set up shop.
Images: Harley-Davidson/Indian
George launched his first model in late 1920 and from the start his hand-built creations were revered for their elegant design, peerless build quality and jewel-like finish. The first model used a British-made side-valve V-twin produced by J.A. Prestwich (or JAP for short) paired with a three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox in a twin-cradle tube frame.
In its formative years, Brough Superior trialled numerous engine suppliers and offered several models with varying displacements. Like numerous British rivals, George was relying on major components sourced from outside suppliers, so it took considerable smarts on his part to create perceptions of Rolls-Royce superiority to justify the high price of his motorcycles.
That included compelling statements in his advertising like: All component parts fitted to Brough Superior machines are made exclusively to my designs and special requirements.
Branch: George Brough would go to the extreme of assembling a motorcycle twice; the first build for testing and ensuring all parts fitted perfectly, then the bike was stripped down, painting and parts plating would be done, and it would be finally assembled and tested.
His big selling point was superiority in quality control…you knew you were getting the best that money could buy, that no expense had been spared in making it as close to perfection as human engineering can accomplish.
Brough Superior SS models offered superbike performance before the term was even invented.
Image: https://en.wheelsage.org/
Super Sports
George Brough continued to indulge his passion for high performance motorcycles and high speeds through competition use, in which Brough Superior was very successful in the early 1920s.
The findings from that development work formed the basis of his Super Sports models, which would epitomise his companys philosophy of superior quality and performance.
The first was the SS80 released in 1922. The number 80 denoted a top speed of at least 80mph (130km/h) and each hand-built example that rolled out of the Nottingham works came with a signed guarantee from George Brough that it could reach that velocity within a quarter-mile, as each was assessed by a factory test rider (nice job if you could get it!) before being released to its customer.
The SS80 was equipped with a thumping side-valve JAP V-twin of 988cc displacement and available in standard or deluxe model grades, with the latter featuring the enhanced ride comfort of coil-spring cantilevered rear suspension.
SS80 gave sports riders a tantalising taste of things to come.
Image: https://en.wheelsage.org/
SS100: the ultimate Brough Superior
The SS80 rece…

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