"You should be able to place every component of the bike on a table and consider them to be both technically accomplished and beautiful," is how Brough Superior's Thierry Henriette once summarized the French revival's ethos.
From some people, words like that would be, well, just words. However, if you've seen one of the new Brough Superior machines, then you already know that they're quite beautiful to look at. While very few will ever own one, it's difficult to deny the level of artistry and skill involved in their creation.
Of course, then comes one of the other situations that arises with limited production bikes: How many of them will actually ever be ridden? On the one hand, if someone buys a bike, they should be able to do what they like with it. On the other, as motorcycle fans, it's difficult to not feel at least a little sad when a particularly special machine doesn't get ridden. You know how it goes.
But what it someone actually gets to ride it?
If you're the lucky person, then congratulations. And if you're the rest of us, well, we'll just have to live vicariously through the lucky rider in this video, who is Bike World's Chris Northover.
Going into the experience, he naturally wondered what the girder fork would feel like, in addition to everything else. Constituent parts might look nice on their own, or even as part of the entire composition, but just looking from the outside can't tell you what a bike is like to actually ride.
An additional question when riding a limited production bike like this is how everything fits together, and how smoothly it will function overall. Quirks can be charming, and are frequently found on any number of bikes. But they're more common on lower-volume bikes, just by virtue of how many instances a manufacturer has had to learn from the past and refine future machines.
Interestingly, as Northover notes in this ride, the SS100 is incredibly smooth, well put together, and consistent. There are quirks, such as how the little flyscreen changes vertical position with the girder fork, but there's simply nothing to fault in the initial riding experience.
Would you ride a new Brough Superior if you could? The trouble with a question like that is, if you're out on open roads, you can't control everything around you. Still, even knowing that, would you take the chance? Let us know in the comments.
