Brough Superior Ridden | This One Really Is A "Dream Ride" 

T.E.Lawrence and his Brough Superior were famous to anyone who saw him ride between Bovington camp and Middle Wallop (RAF) , sometimes London. My grandfather told me the story that the young lads, including him, would hear him from miles away, then rush to a sharp corner at a village called Pimperne - Lawrence of Arabia frequently scraped the undercarriage whilst going around the corner, leaving the boys awestruck 😮

This has to be the happiest, most joyous RU-vid review on a motorbike I have seen for the entirety of 2023, also the greatest feeling I’ve felt from witnessing you talk about this bike ride it to with absolute no concern…. I hadn’t heard that Brough was being made again and to be fair. It’s a really good modern version of that amazing machine, so many years ago….. my father long since passed, used to talk about these all the time as he was born in 1908 and had a lot of experience in the early motorcycle scene…. I’ve not long returned to motorcycling in my early 60s and if I had the money and there was the availability I wouldn’t hold back in buying one of these machines….. thank you for such a great video

Man, I've lusted over this thing ever since they released It, and seeing how well It performs turns It into a rare "Some heroes are meant to be met" hero of mine.

Thanks for this ride review Chris - there are not too many out there, and you confirm my feelings and impressions: I put 2000km on mine, all B-Roads and my usual weekend coffee-run to Schwägalp-Pass, and I love it.... Yes, it is to be ridden, although my riding season was too short this year - ending already in July for all the wrong reasons... Ride safe, cheers from Switzerland

If I could own just one bike it would be this bike. It is the most staggeringly beautiful motorcycle ever made. And it goes well too. I'll have one.

Amazing. I am glad craftsmanship beyond a stamping press is still of value and available.

I can confirm that the BS is sturdy. My daughter of 7 managed to drop the SS100 at the Czech Dealer MR43 in Prague last summer. The bike dropped, smashed two Jawa bike rear reflectors and put a traumatic dent in the self- confidence of the showroom employee who was in panic. The bike though didn't even had a scratch after a close inspection. I can vouch for the build quality. 👍

Sorry, but I think they are ugly as sin, and the fact that it is made in France makes it nothing but a cynical piggyback on the Brough name. The fact that it has suffered one of the most brutal depreciation nosedives of any new bike ever, means I'm clearly not the only one who thinks this way.

Thank you.

that bike has seriously got it going on !! I'm awe struck :)

Art... pure art.

What a beautiful bike definitely on my lottery list . Thanks for showing it to us.

Wonderful review! I have seen them and often wondered what they were like to ride. Bikes need to be ridden!

Drop dead gorgeous.well done to the makers

Personally, I don’t get the “old bike” thing, and by old bike I mean pre 60’s, so mimicking one doesn’t do it…….but I’m still glad they exist, and still glad that the knowledgeable enthusiasts are there, because they remind us of where we come from, and round out our interest. A warm Sunday morning special choice to ride for me would be a 996, or an 888, but I get why someone would choose this, and I’d love to go for a spin with someone who does.

I like that...a bike for the hallway...you'd stop and look at it ever time you came home!

Looks are subjective, but lets say that they should had take more inspiration from past models...

The original Brough Superior as ridden by TE Laurence and it’s history has nothing to do with this motorcycle. The only commonality is the name. The new machine is made in France. The modern version is certainly a highly well made bike, but to be attempting to link it to the original bikes is dishonest.

Saw one of these at the Wickham gathering on boxing day. Beautiful bike that stopped me in my tracks. Certainly something different, and special..

visited the TE lawrence crash site, his Brough was capable of 108 so as a nod i did that past it. pulled up, there's a small memorial there and had this weird moment, lovely summer evening, no one about, imagined he was there, me licking my lips looking at his Brough, him licking his lips looking at my Panigale. it was a surreal moment. the roads around there are delicious, wide, smooth, so easy to imagine him going flat out.

Hey now! I ride a GSXR750 and would still love one of these! I have 2 1983 XJ750s and a 1979 XS1100 as well!

Nice one Chris, I love this series. This bike looks stunning. A real piece of art.

Piece of an art

Beautiful

Nice to see something I've been working on analyzed on this show :)

Fecking gorgeous 😎👍🏻

The word special is meant for bikes like these .Would love to see this again on a sunny track day Awesome

so nice that i've never even heard of them. beautiful machine.

Lovely. Harkens to the days when a bike was a real machine, an industrial revolution work of art. And you were given the opportunity to help run it in, on wet roads 'n all. Did he make you wash it afterwards?

Anything that rides or sounds like the utterly fantastic RSV Mille is ok in my book. This bike is one to where I make no apologies suggesting that the adjective “delicious” is wholly appropriate!

If I had stupid money to throw on a rare, bespoke bike I would choose the Ariel Ace any day. That tuned honda v4 with a frame carved out of a single block of alu is a thing of beauty and has that raw v4 music to go by. The Brough does looks exquisite when you look at all the parts in isolation but when combined it just doesn't work for me. Chris, would love to see you ride the Ariel if you can get your hands on one.

Phenomenal motorcycle!

Love it a very special bike you are very a lucky man 😊

I'm a British bike nut and have owned over 40 in total and have held various degrees of fondness for each and every one. I've even had a new 650 enfield which I loved but I have to say that this bike just doesn't cut it where I'm concerned- it;s ugly and graceless and esthetically awkward. This was a great opportunity to create something very special but that opportunity was missed.

You were in the right place for some good roads, though I don't blame you for not wanting to ride out through town to get there! I don't 'get' the aesthetics personally, especially the tank straps and extended tailpiece. I know that's a highly subjective thing but it just doesn't seem to 'gel' as a design in the way that something like the Ducati MH900e did. I only mention that bike because that same dealer has several of those in at £25-30k IIRC :-) Anyway I guess if it does it for you that's all that matters (apart from the small matter of coming up with £40k!) and maybe it's a good thing it took a depreciation hit - that way maybe more of them will be ridden rather than kept in glass cases..!

Earlier than the 40s TEL died in the 30s Good review of a fascinating bike

I might buy one now after seeing this film as they are appearing on the 2nd hand market at about the £20,000 mark. I still think the Vincent is So. Obviously. Superior as predicted right at the end of this film.

wow. EPIC.

Brough Superior hasn't stayed true to anything in is modern presence. It's French built in Toulouse. Ex-pat in Austria owning Brough. The originals from Nottingham were built to spec and of selected parts from the parts market bar some cycle parts.

When virtually everything else is in the scrap yard this is a proper classic and a pension. What a machine.

Awesome video! Gorgeous bike for sure. A lot of original thought in the design, definitely unique. That sound is phenomenal ! Best!

I think it's high time for a sandwich bag renaissance!

I'm not sure if he had anything to do with this particular bike but if Sam Lovegrove had anything to do with it that's why it's a bikers bike,he is a genius and that is a stunning machine.Great video Sir keep them coming and all the best for 24.

This bike looks like it's built so well, it will last 100 years

Excellent review, thanks guys :-) PS Merry Christmas and happt New Year to yourselves and your readers..... just looked at the Brough Superior webpage and the AMB 001 needs to be reviewed by Chris to please.

I would need to ride this bike in order to qualify my initial thoughts about it, and as an eighty year old who grew up riding British bikes very long distances probably more than several million miles in total, and after living and working for twenty years in the Isle of Man, I think with all modesty, that my opinion is qualified. However, the first impression is that the new Brough Superior was designed by a non Engineer. This bike looks as if a committee of non Engineers decided to make it look antique, and they had a fight as to who could make the ugliest Frankenstein monster to fool the public into thinking that it had a quality which might be called " Aestheically Pleasing", and it fails from every angle that it is looked from. If this sells the first 300 batch, I would be surprised, and can probably guarantee that collectors would buy them, just to store them and hope to make money in fifty years from now, by not unpacking them from the box. In other words, speculators will buy them, NOT riders, as they are ugly, and expensive, just what rich people like to buy for investment purposes.

The original company made 100mph bikes in the 20s and 30s, not the 40s, production had ceased by then because of WW2

BEST OUTRO EVER! 😂🏆

For my 2 cents worth, its' a beautiful mobile work of art, and it seems to be a competent ride as well. Either you get it or you don't, styling wise. I think its superb and unique, all the better for looking like nothing else. Made in France? Not a problem - if that is where the engineering can be done best. My only concern is the exhaust note but they have to comply with Euro regs I suppose. Well done Mark Upham!

Looks terrible look at the V of the engine an those master cylinders look like salt & pepper pots cheap ones as well. CNC machined parts never look good on a classic bike anyway.

Sounds awesome too !!

4 disc brake, a unrecognizeable front shock which i never see, beautiful engine, man really is the dream Its a dream because it cost around 100k dollars or more

i like the quality aspect of it, the function over form, but if i had that money i would buy a godet vincent, also built in france

Spectatular motorbike! 🥰 Well done, Chris!

I want one for the handlebar clamp alone. Great job Brough.

T.E. Lawrence also wrote 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'. One for each Brough, perhaps?

Love to see Allen Millyard turn two of these engines into a V4 ... THAT would certainly be collectable 😉👌

Nice looking bike. Beautiful exhaust lines. LED headlight 🤦‍♂️

Great review and particularly interesting with the value and the useable character,, lottery tickets pending 🎄🎄 happy Christmas 🎁 from northern Ireland ☘️☘️☘️☘️

Finally back with Dream Ride! Do one on Suzuki GSX R 1000 K1

This bike has no "rich history"... Just a rich mans investment. There is no connection between this and the original Brough.

Two wheel Bugatti! Beautiful.

They only make a “limited” 300 due to emission loop holes. They only need to change a couple of things and call the next model something else then they can knock out another 300. CCM have done this with the spitfire series. It’s a scam really because the buyer thinks they are getting something unique like this Brough but there will be many more and the prices second hand plummet.

That is a rich boy’s gimick, not in the slightest comparable to what the Rolls Royce of Motorcycle called Brough Superior ever was. It’s a wonderful showpiece, if you like it, can’t see more in it. Basically take the time to create an elite version of a v-strom 1050 clubman. George would have built elite variants of what Bimota is doing, a 400mph H2 with a hybrid engine and a brutally modern chassis. He couldn’t care less about shine pieces and V-2, he used the next best beyond all others, that almost nobody could replicate. Sincerely, Sir Lawrence from Akhabar. Hahaha, the speciality is that “it works! It doesn’t….” Doesn’t do what like? Like a Norton? LOL. If I want a Honda I buy a Yamaha.

I’ll take one.

It's cool to see this ridden, I've only ever seen them sitting still, in pics. Now, if the standard critique was applied to this bike how would it stack up (handling, braking [those are small rotors by today's standards, even for laid back bikes], roll-on, etc.)? I suspect that it's so exclusive price wise and status wise that Brough admirers find such questions insulting. 😂 Me, I'll take the Aprilia RSV you mention. To each their own, though.👍

I think George Brough would have trouble keeping his dinner down!

What the heck has that Brough Superior got to do with its history 🤷🏻‍♂️ it’s built in France for F..k sake 🫣🥴

Love it , not worked out if its the name and its historical reminder of the past , Its a pity they aren't built in Britain,

Brough Sups heyday was 1920s - 1930s, by mid to late 1940s they were beyond saving, unfortunately. Not impressed by this ‘late incarnation’ being made in France.. but it sounds very nice and I’m happy to take your word, Chris, on how good it is. I’ll never ride one! Les

Ride it Rollie!!! Noice!

Interesting but not for me, but then I think an RD350LC was one of the best looking bikes ever made.

I'm sorry. I think it looks extremely ugly. Like someone welded together random parts form a scrapyard.

Nice 🙂

every bit as valid even more so than any motorcycle vintage or modern, and this is what `triumph` have depressingly failed to achieve in their long and illustrious history, the buffoons in the R&d need waking up ,imagine a triumph veetwin akin to this marque, 9whereabouts did you do the road test out of curiosity lads ? it looks very familiar👍

Beautiful bike, that front mud guard needs to be longer, protect that beautifully made radiator

I still have a huge soft spot for the old Mille - owned 4 in succession.

My Father had a Brough in the late 1930s, affordable to him as he and his brother rebuilt a crash-damaged example. Mothballed during the war, he sold it after being severely injured in the last days of the North African campaign in May 1943 when he was a RCofS despatch rider, and having a full leg amputation as a result. Shame he didn't keep it considering the value now!

I don't want to yuck someone else's yum but I think that bike looks awful. Still, each to our own!

Impressive to look at, probably very nice to ride but sounds like a budget 500cc parallel twin, that spoils it for me.

My Grandfather who died in 1958 had a Brough for about 15 years. After he passed Gran sold the bike for £25!! My Dad went barmy!

It doesnt float my boat at all.Give me a RC30 anyday...

An old drinking buddy of my dad had shome shares in the original Brough, he showed me his cirtificates once. He was an interesting old character, Henry More's brother in law.

Way too fiddly with the details. You don’t machine for the sake of machining. Too much of the ‘Confederate’ cycles look to it.

Wow wow wow that thing looks soooo good anyone who loves bikes knows brough is a dream bike and they have done it’s name justice with this , I may have to sell the wife and kids to get one but my god it would be worth it ( sorry Lisa but your on eBay ) just looks so retro and beautiful. And I’m a sports bike rider but man I appreciate the build and looks of this machine

So Chris, when are you gonna throw your leg over that TZ500 in the background there?❤

Nice french bike.

I’m asucker for bikes like this., even though I get better value for money from any of the big four, Ducati, etc. …. remarkable achievement for such a small, French workshop. Sidenote, those bars are bloody narrow.

Just a great bike to ride. Great engine and ride set up. Glad to own one. 😊

Interesting video. Interesting bike. Maybe it looks better in the flesh? I always thought that the design of the seat and tail unit jarred a bit with the tank. Not a bike that the eye flowed pleasingly over. It would be nice to have the money to throw a set of bags over the back and put some summer touring miles on. Just for shits and giggles.

James @ The Bike Specialists is a bit out with his decades... Broughs were more pre war, the 40's Vinnies already ruled.

Does this have the same 20 hour top end rebuild and transmission replacement requirement as the Aston Martin version?

Great bike, sounds like my Ducati.

Read the book : The Mint by T.E. Lawrence if you have a chance

Interesting yes and superior job to have build it. But.. I prefer Moto Guzzi La Macchina 850 By MCNC.

It's doubtless very well engineered, but why did they have to make it so unrelentingly ugly?

Well, maybe if those lottery numbers come up I'll manage to secure one and run it around the Mae Hong Son Loop until I'm physically incapable of throwing my leg over (and at 63, it may not be that much longer).

Each to their own, but it looks like a bitza to me.

I love it.

Steering dampner 1st upgrade, other than that looks like a fine handcrafted repop.& daily rider.