Beschreibung:

This matching-numbers SS80 is one of 460 Matchless-engined examples built, of which some 300-or-so survive. Its copy works records card shows that the machine was sold to Layton’s Garage in Oxford and despatched by passenger train on 27th September 1935. The accompanying old-style continuation logbook records the fact that the original logbook was retained by Renfrew County Council in August 1961 and that the Brough was owned (from 1960) by a Mr Alexander Fraser of Barochan, Houston, Renfrewshire. It then passed to Robert Ramsay Fraser, of The Stables, Barochan in 1962, while the next owner listed is a Mr H L Hoggard of Beverley, Yorkshire. During the 1960s the machine was taxed as a motorcycle combination. In 1985 a Mr D Pryce of Wakefield bought the bike from Mr Hoggard, who was selling five Broughs at that time. Mr Pryce, a qualified Mechanical Engineer, then embarked on a full restoration, which took several years to complete. The rebuild included fitting a Torrington needle-roller crankshaft main bearing on the drive side, a popular modification among Brough owners that cures a known weakness of the Matchless engine. On completing the rebuild (in 1998) Mr Pryce rode the Brough for approximately 100 miles to begin the running-in process and iron out any teething problems. When this was done, the machine was put on display in his house. Started regularly and kept well maintained, the Brough was still in as-restored condition when sold to its next owner, Martin Bowater, in 2002. Mr Bowater did not possess a motorcycle licence and bought the Brough to display as part of his private motoring collection, where it was carefully stored and started regularly to ensure that it remained in prime condition. In 2005 Mr Bowater commissioned the manufacture of a new fuel tank via a specialist contact in the Brough Superior Owners Club. A magnificent example of the metal worker’s craft, it cost over £2,500. The only other work carried out was the professional restoration of the speedometer and its gearbox to ‘as new’ condition, these being the only parts not up to the standard of the rest of the machine. The odometer currently displays zero miles. Mr Bowater sold the Brough to the current owner in 2006. Fully serviced, the machine is offered with the aforementioned works record card and old-style logbook, sundry restoration invoices, dating certificate, fresh MoT, current road fund licence, Swansea V5C registration document and a quantity of Brough Superior-related literature. A rare opportunity to acquire a matching-numbers SS80, fully restored and little used since completion in the late 1990s.