Trivia: Motorcycling's third decade - 1920 to '29: The motorcycle goes upmarket

The roar in “Roaring Twenties” was the sound of an overheated stock market, not motorcycles. However, it was a great decade for hundreds of now-vanished manufacturers.

George Brough was a motorcycle maker who really captured the spirit of the times. His Brough Superior models were “the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles” and that wasn’t an empty boast – the bikes were so well made that when Charles Rolls and William Royce examined one of them, they gave Brough permission to use their names in his advertising.

Most Brough Superiors were sold with engines outsourced from James A. Prestwich. Those “JAP” motors were supplied to many other builders, but Brough’s came in special tunings that allowed him to guarantee that his SS100 model would really go 100 miles an hour. Each of Brough’s machines was specially fitted to its owner, like a custom suit. They were fast, comfortable and built to last, so it’s not surprising they remain sought after to this day.

Mister, we could use a man like T.E. Lawrence again... 'Lawrence of Arabia' met his demise when he crashed one of the several Brough Superiors that he owned.