Broughs of Bodmin Moor

December 2015

BS4 | Austin Four | Bonhams | Brough Superior

Eight Broughs stored in barns for over half a century will go under the hammer at the Bonhams Sale of Important Collectors’ Motorcycles at Stafford on 24th April 2016. The bikes were unearthed earlier this year, and until that time they were largely viewed as mythical machines.

Relatively few members of the classic bike community, including members of the Brough Superior Club, believed the machines were still around. But the late (and possibly appropriately named) owner Frank Vague had the rare motorcycles squirreled away on a farm on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

▲ This is what a £6,000 - £8,000 (estimated) Brough Superior project looks like. If you want some cycle parts to suit, there's another lot in the same auction, also estimated at £6,000 - £8,000. All you need is some more money, grit, drive and ambition, and you're mobile Brough man.

Of particular interest is the four-cylinder BS4 model featuring twin rear wheels and a driveshaft between the two. Just eight were built by George Brough at the Haydn Road, Nottingham works, and it seems that with the discovery of this example, all the BS4s are accounted for.

Here's the complete Bodmin Moor collection with sale estimates:

1932 Brough 797cc BS4, £80,000-120,000, Ex-Hubert Chantrey

1938 Brough Superior 982cc SS100 Project, £60,000-80,000

1926 Brough Superior SS100, £30,000-40,000

1938 Brough 982cc SS80 (Petrol Tube Sidecar), £22,000-32,000

1939 Brough Superior 982cc SS80 Project, £20,000-30,000

1938 Brough Superior 1,096cc 11-50HP Project, £16,000-22,000

1937 Brough Superior 982cc SS80 Project, £6,000-8,000

1936 Brough Superior 982cc SS80 Project, £6,000-8,000

Bonhams, which supplied the images, is naturally pretty chuffed about the discovery and is looking at an estimated £240,000 - £340,000 for the complete collection. In the coming days, weeks and months we'll be returning to this story.

In the meantime, if you've got any aspirations about becoming a Brough Superior owner, either in whole or in parts, you'd better save those pennies and get along to Stafford.

www.bonhams.com

— Big End