Tate Brough – Paul Gander’s 1800 mile ride

One thousand eight hundred glorious miles on a Brough Superior.

The Brough Club very kindly lent me a Brough Superior SS80 so that I could experince riding one – I wrote an article for the club on my experiences and here it is.

At the end of June 2013 I collected the Brough Superior Clubs Tate SS80 from its custodian Dave Clark and for the next two months it came to live with me. 

I could have spent many happy hours looking at all of the superb engineering that is progressing in Dave’s sheds and house, but Dave is a busy man and I have a Brough Superior to ride! Whatever tinkering I may get up to in my garage is clearly at the primitive end of the scale compared to Dave who is clearly a highly skilled and very proper engineer. After being shown some of the fine engineering and machines that Dave has, it is time for me to take the Tate away. 

After pre-flight checks and an explanation of Brough Superior riding and care I finally get to sit on the Brough and then full of excitement and not a little trepidation I have my first ride as I leave Dave’s and head off to the joys of the M25 motorway and home. 

I expected its long wheelbase to make it slow to turn and cumbersome, but it steers very nicely. I had wondered how it would fair with no rear suspension and girder forks, but again this is a pleasant surprise and it rides nicely over the less than smooth tarmac now favoured in this country. After a few minutes we join the M25 for a few junctions to bypass some of the urban sprawl and settle down to a steady indicated 50/55mph on a surprisingly traffic free motorway. The engine feels lovely as it sort of hums and thumps away below and is surprisingly quiet. We soon leave the M25 and take to some nicer roads for our inaugural flight. A few minutes after the bike splutters and cuts and a switch to reserve petrol brings the motor back to life a moment later. The small reserve tap falls perfectly to hand, even for a novice wearing bike gloves and operates with a lovely silky action. On other older machines I have ridden, operating the reserve tap can be a contorted process as it is daftly barely accessible and usually has the fluidity of a rusty padlock. On a Brough Superior it is well positioned and works perfectly. We stop at the next petrol station and add a few gallons and a quick look over the bike shows all is well. We continue for home via an extra long route as I have waited decades to ride a Brough Superior and I am in no hurry to get off it now. The more I ride it the more I appreciate its charms. A few hours later we trundle up the driveway and park up outside. A few minutes more and I have moved a garden chair next to it and with a mug of tea for company just sit and look at it and take in how everything fits together. Even after many weeks of having it to stay I kept finding myself popping into the garage to look at it and often sitting with a mug of tea and just appreciating it. I couldn’t quite believe I had a Brough Superior sitting in my garage and that I could ride it whenever I wanted and ride it I did, taking it out for a spin almost every day.

For most people reading this, the sight of a Brough Superior will be a regular occurrence, but for me and most other people it is still a rare sight. Indeed before I joined the club I had only ever seen one on the road and all the rest were trapped in museums.