THE LINES of the Brough Superior SS100, along with its performance, make it one of the most sought-after motorcycles.

When his ads referred to the Brough Superior as the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles, the bike’s reputation was such that the fussy carmaker did not object. By any estimation, the snobbery of Brough was justified; at that time his motorcycles cost more than a small cottage. While they were status symbols, they also won races and set speed records. Their singular look was not only considered avant garde in the early part of the 20th century, but was deemed such a transcendent design that it was once exhibited in New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

Because Brough Superiors were made to order, their specifications changed constantly, making each bike like a piece of haute couture. The top-of-the-line SS100 came with a signed guarantee that the bike had been timed at more than 100 mph, and even the more inexpensive models exuded an aura of elegance. While Americans associated motorcycles with the blue-collar hooliganism epitomized later by Marlon Brando’s character in The Wild One, the British viewed their bikes as precious national treasures. T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), perhaps the Brough Superior’s most famous collector, owned seven. He was killed riding one.

"I’m not the least bitinterested in the investment aspect," Jay Leno stresses, echoing the widespread sentiment among owners that places a love of the bike over the desire to sell and cash out.

Only 3,000 Brough Superiors were built between 1923 and 1939, and of those, few more than 1,000 survive today. They enjoy such a passionate following that most owners disdain the idea of purchasing one for investment purposes. Emotion aside, the machines have seen a startling rise in value in recent years. Bike aficionado Jay Leno, host of the Tonight Show, bought an SS100 for $10,000 in the 1980s. "Everybody thought I was out of my mind, paying that kind of money," he recalls. His instinct, however, was prescient; an SS100 in good condition now commands more than $100,000–not that he is selling. "I’m not the least bit interested in the investment aspect," he stresses, echoing the widespread sentiment among owners that places a love of the bike over the desire to sell and cash out.

However, Mike FitzSimons, a Connecticut-based collector and structural engineer who served as an officer for the Brough Superior Club for more than 20 years, is more matter-of-fact. "In the long run, nobody’s ever lost money buying a Brough Superior," he claims. "I’ve seen their prices easily double over the last five years."

Charisma in Motion
Most owners cite the bike’s design and attention to detail as fuel for their fascination. "I didn’t really buy it for investment. I bought it to ease this passion I have for motorcycles," explains collector Daniel Schoenewald, an entrepreneur in Southern California who raves about his SS100’s mechanical wonderment. Leno, who owns six Brough Superiors, is similarly stirred by their handcrafted workmanship and fine fitments. "There’s a great kinetic beauty about them; they have an intrinsic mechanicalness," he muses. "When you look at an old Brough, it’s like opening the back of an old watch–a quartz watch is more accurate, it’s just not as interesting."

Brough Superiors still draw attention because of their design. Their elongated chrome gas tanks are arguably the most exquisite in all of motorcycle history. In spite of visible pushrods and exposed valve trains, the engines are finished like jewelry. But while they were mechanically groundbreaking for their time, owners reiterate that their performance cannot compare to that of a modern bike. Regarding the SS100’s once-stellar top speed, Leno quips: "Now, you’re getting passed up by a woman in a Kia putting on her lipstick." John Pera, who maintains Leno’s collection in Los Angeles, also cites a common complaint about their stopping power. "They go like a bat out of hell," he says, "but their brakes don’t compare to their power. T.E. Lawrence could attest to that."

Regardless of how Brough Superiors stack up against modern bikes in terms of performance, their value in the collector market only continues to rise, particularly for early models. Pera tells of one Brough that sold 12 years ago for around $10,000, and recently traded hands again for close to $70,000. Other market reports cite good condition SS100s that were selling in the neighborhood of $90,000 four years ago and now fetch close to $150,000.

FitzSimons may have an emotional attachment to these motorcycles, but he maintains a businessman’s attitude toward collecting. His involvement with the brand began 30 years ago when he first took an interest in British bikes. Guided by passion, but anchored by pragmatism, he urges would-be buyers to "collect the very best, and also the very best examples of the very best."

With their value at an all-time high, this moment in Brough Superior history is opportune because the enthusiasts who appreciate the quirky British motorcycles also happen to be wealthy enough to afford them. "When you have guys at my age at their peak earning power," Leno says, "they go back to the stuff that was hot when they were a kid. When I was a kid, the Brough Superior was a legendary motorcycle." He adds that in the 1960s, a Ford Model T was $8,000 to $10,000, a value that persists in 2005 because the people who felt attachments to them are now dead. "I think Brough Superiors will always be valuable," he says, "but I think they will be most valuable right now. I don’t know if guys in their 20s will be willing to spend $100,000 for one."

VALUE JUDGMENT: Known for both its rarity and beauty, the Brough Superior sits at the top of any motorcycle collector’s wish list. Manufactured between the world wars in Nottingham, England, by designer and racer George Brough, only 1,000 of the handmade bikes still exist, a fact that fuels a very competitive collector market.

Robert D. Arnott, a financial analyst in Pasadena, Calif., and a Brough collector, concurs with Leno. "It’s people of my generation wanting to recapture their youth," Arnott says. "I tend to like bikes that are the fastest and rarest of their era. [Brough Superiors] were the fastest production bikes of the 1920s and ’30s, and their long-legged elegance was appealing to me. There’s nothing rough-edged about them, and I decided they would be a natural addition to my collection."

Of course, this type of investment always involves an element of danger. "Any collectible is illiquid," FitzSimons warns, "because it is subject to the whims of the market. I don’t care if a guy’s worth $10 million, if economic signs are better and the stock market’s going up, he won’t be as aggressive about collecting." Other forces also come into play in the world of six-figure motorcycle collecting. Word-of-mouth usually precedes auction houses or dealers, and at that rarified level, sellers are at the whims of a very finicky group of buyers.

Care and Feeding
Collecting and riding Brough Superiors is also complicated by the fact that they sometimes require very creative maintenance. They are best serviced by a small cadre of technicians who are familiar with their design and have a knack for imaginative solutions to mechanical problems. Schoenewald, who takes pride in riding his 1930 SS100 frequently, experienced an engine seizure and immediately called his friend Allen Millyard, an engineer and mechanical guru in Great Britain who searched the parts market for a replacement. Millyard located a pair of pistons that cost $800 each and required a two-month waiting period for delivery. Because there is no official factory support for Brough Superiors, the custom pistons would not necessarily affect the value of the bike, nor would they offer an intrinsic mechanical advantage. Millyard instead improvised with two Kawasaki pistons, and machined the engine’s valves in order to fit the Japanese parts. "As long as the external appearance remains the same, it’s perfectly acceptable to modify the internal parts to gain a bit of reliability," Millyard explains. Because 1930s metallurgy does not compare to modern technology, the new pistons offered an efficient and cost-effective solution.

FINDING A BROUGH Because there are so few Brough Superiors in existence, would-be collectors may have a hard time finding one for sale. A good place to connect with other enthusiasts and learn more about the market for these motorcycles is at broughsuperiorclub.com, the website of Brough Superior Club, a group based in Nottingham, England. Brough Superiors and memorabilia occasionally turn up for auction at Bonhams & Butterfields, and even eBay. Finally, both the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Ala., and the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa, offer Brough exhibits and can provide sales information on various collector bikes.

The economics of restoring such an exotic motorcycle can be counterintuitively forgiving. "It costs just as much to restore a valuable bike as a not-valuable bike," Leno says. "You pick up a 650 Triumph and put 100 hours into it, and it’s not going to be worth as much as a Brough Superior you’ve put 100 hours into." Of course, there will always be self-proclaimed experts who snobbishly insist on giving the bikes a certain type of attention, but Leno’s attitude, like that of most Brough Superior owners, is refreshingly egalitarian. "Obviously, you want to use period fittings, but Brough never really built a motorcycle, he just used the best parts he could," Leno says. "It’s not like these guys that have Ferraris who only put Italian air into the tires."

A common denominator among most North American Brough enthusiasts is their insistence on riding their bikes regularly, a practice that essentially disregards the notion of the bikes as precious, horded commodities that collect dust for the sake of future return. Millyard says that he does not know any Britons who own one; most Brough Superiors in the United Kingdom, he says, are museum bikes. "You read about them in classic mags, and they get taken out on a very dry Sunday, ridden at 25 mph for three minutes. They’re seen as national heritage in England, so you couldn’t possibly ride it because you might crash it." In contrast, not only do most U.S. owners ride their Broughs regularly, several claim to enjoy near triple-digit speeds–despite their notoriously spotty brakes.

Basem Wasef is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

Photograph by Randy Cordero/Cordero Studios.