Description
This motorcycle is Lot 302 to be auctioned by Bonhams at The Autumn Stafford Sale (The Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show) on 12 & 13 October, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
Auction Timings:
Lots 1 - 176 are to be sold from 11:00 on Saturday 12th October 2024.
Lots 201 - 429 are to be sold from 11:00 on Sunday 13th October 2024.
Public Viewing:
Available 12th & 13th October 2024 from 09:00 until 17:00, at The Stafford County Showground (The Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show).
Lot 302
1930 Brough Superior Overhead 680
Registration no. TV 1501
Frame no. J953
Engine no. GTOY/ S 73304/ H (see text)
'Miniature SS100'
Spent most of its life in Yorkshire
Quite what George Brough's father - Nottingham-based motorcycle manufacturer William Edward Brough - thought when his younger son cheekily added the word 'Superior' to the family name when founding his rival marque can only be imagined, but it's thanks to this act of youthful bravado that we have one of the greatest and most evocative names in motorcycling. W E Brough's machines had been innovative and well engineered, and his son's continued the family tradition but with an added ingredient - style. The very first Brough Superior of 1919 featured a saddle tank - an innovation not adopted by the rest of the British industry until 1928 - and the latter's broad-nosed, wedge-profiled outline would be a hallmark of the Nottingham-built machines from then on. Hand-built in small numbers, the Brough Superior was - inevitably - expensive, but as its maker acknowledged, he 'never intended to produce (the) design as cheaply as possible.'
J A Prestwich of London and Motosacoche of Geneva supplied v-twin engines for the MkI and MkII Brough Superiors respectively, though within a few years all models would be JAP-powered. Gearboxes were sourced from Sturmey-Archer and (initially) forks from Montgomery, while frame and accessory manufacture was contracted out to specialists in the British motorcycle industry's Midlands heartland.
With the SS80 tourer and SS100 sports model well established by the mid-1920s, it was decided to add a smaller and cheaper alternative to these two 1, 000cc models to the range. JAP was already producing a 674cc sidevalve v-twin engine and this unit, redesigned to accommodate overhead valves, went into Brough's new 'Overhead 680'. First shown to the public at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1926, the 'Miniature SS100', as George Brough called it, entered production for 1927 and was an immediate success..
First registered on 21th March 1930 and originally supplied to J H Briggs & Sons of Castleford, this Overhead 680 has spent most of its life in Yorkshire, mainly in the Harrogate area but also with owners in Leeds and Wakefield. The vendor's late brother acquired the Brough in 2005. Offered for recommissioning/ restoration and sold strictly as viewed, the machine comes with an old-style buff logbook from 1947; a current V5C document; and a BSOC letter confirming factory records. It should be noted that the engine is a replacement from 1931, and is not in the Brough factory records.
All lots are sold 'as is/ where is' and Bidders must satisfy themselves as to the provenance, condition, age, completeness and originality prior to bidding. Visit the Bonhams Motorcycles website for all pertinent auction information.
