A very rare Brough Superior motorcycle bought for £70 is expected to sell for £180,000 at auction.
The Brough Superior SS100 was the bike of its day and is one of the most sought-after motorcycles in existence.
And this 1939 model was originally owned by George Brough himself and driven with a sidecar in the London-Edinburgh endurance run.
The 990cc bike, dubbed the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles, was owned by Brough for six years before being sold in 1945 for £200.
A machine shop superintendent called Eric Checkley bought the bike in 1957 for £70 and registered it for the road four years later.
Mr Checkley, from Banbury, Oxon, chose the Brough – now without its sidecar – because it was the best British motorcycle you could own.
He used it until 1967 and then put it in storage until 2000 when he gave the bike to his son, who has now decided to sell it.
The bike, which cost £70 and has the plate ‘FTV 702’, is now one of the most desirable thing on two wheels and is expected to sell for £180,000 when it goes under the hammer later this month.
It is thought there are only around 70 Brough Superior SS100 in existence and this model starts second time when cold and has had the dynamo refurbished and a new battery fitted.
The bike is being sold with a logbook and a 1939 magazine article on the London-Edinburgh endurance run when George Brough rode with Motor Cycling journalist Henry Laird.
Brough bikes were made from 1919 until 1940 in Haydn Road, Nottingham with TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, owning seven of them.
He was killed when he crashed one of his bikes in Dorset in 1935.
The bike will be sold on April 27 at Bonhams Spring Stafford Sale in Staffordshire.
James Stensel, motorcycle specialist at Bonhams, said: “What makes it so special is that it was campaigned by George Brough himself.
“We normally sell around one SS100 a year so they are a rare machine and at the forefront of collectible bikes.
“This has been helped by the Lawrence of Arabia collection as he was killed while riding an SS100.
“The bikes were referred to as the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles. Rolls-Royce visited the factory and saw the superiority of the machine and allowed them to use the name.
“The SS100 was a very capable, long distance touring bike of its time and it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy one which was campaigned by George Brough.
“I expect it will go to a collection or museum.”
