'OLD BILL'

'Old Bill' as she sits today

HandH Classics in England have secured the rights to sell 'Old Bill', the second most famous Brough Superior of all (the first being, of course, the bike on which TE Lawrence was killed).

Before we go on, a correction; their press release claims HandH Classics have sold the most expensive motorcycle at auction, which is simply not true by any calculus. That spot goes to MidAmerica Auctions, whose sale of a Cyclone in July 2008 hit $551,200; as the English Pound has never achieved a 2:1 ratio with the US Dollar, the £280,000 ($465,350 on the day) sale of a Brough SS100 in 2011 is hardly the greater sum. Let's get the facts straight, HandH; to keep abreast of the most expensive bikes sold at auction, follow my 'Top 20' here.

George Brough on 'Spit and Polish' with 'KTC' JAP engine, Druid forks, and 'dummy rim' brakes fore and aft.  1922

Back to the story!  'Old Bill' started life as 'Spit and Polish' (vernacular from the military 'spit shine' on boots), a specially built Brooklands racer noted for its ultra-clean appearance, starting a trend (Bill Lacey usurped George Brough's spot for the cleanest racers, with his entirely nickel-plated, immaculate machines).  While 'Spit and Polish' won success at the track with its specially tuned JAP 'KTC' 976cc sidevalve engine, from the talented hands of Bert LeVack (development engineer for JAP at the time, and rider of tremendous talent).  The bird really sang, though, when LeVack offered GB the prototype JAP 'KTR' racing sidevalve engine, which would become the basis for the Bough Superior 'SS80' model.  The crankshaft was radically lightened until a single 'spoke' connected the big end, mainshaft, and an outer flywheel rim, which gave the ultra-light machine the acceleration of a scalded cat.   The fully developed machine was reborn as a sprinter, and re-christened 'Old Bill', a character in Bruce Bairnsfather's WW1 comic book.

George Brough aboard the transformed 'Old Bill', and note the changes - new twin-camshaft KTR engine, a lower frame with extra struts, a drum front brake, and new Webb forks

While George Brough is best known as the manufacturer of Brough Superior motorcycles, and his prowess as a salesman and spinner of enduring ad copy has overshadowed his considerable skill as a rider.  Long before he built his own motorcycles (starting in 1919), George was winning trials and races on his father William Brough's machinery (Broughs, too, but not 'Superior'...although many consider his father's engineering superior to his son's, as he built his own engines - something George never did successfully).

A period postcard showing a young George Brough aboard a Brough motorcycle, after winning three London-Edinburgh trials in 1910-1912 (from the Brough Superior photo archives - worth a visit!)

'Old Bill' was George Brough's ultimate sprint weapon, and he bested the most famous sprinter of the day - George Dance on his Sunbeams - many times, winning 51 sprints in a row in 1922/23.  'Old Bill' crossed the finish line on race #52 in first as well, but George was elsewhere, busy scrubbing the flesh off his buttocks 100mph on gravel, 'Bill' having bucked him a few yards before the finish...an experience which ended his racing career, and meant several months of painful skin grafts in those pre-penicillin days...

Rider A.Greenwood aboard 'Old Bill' at the 1924 Doncaster Speed Trials

As the Brough Superior factory was hardly flush with cash, 'Old Bill' was stripped of its racing bits (ie, that crankshaft and those specially ported cylinders, plus the added frame struts), and rebuilt as a road bike...not exactly a 'race horse to cart horse' transformation, as it was still a Brough after all.  During WW2, the bike was damaged, but VMCC founder and arch BS enthusiast 'Titch' Allen purchased and restored the machine, with the help of GB himself and plant manager Ike Webb, to resemble its famous ca.1922 racing trim.  While GB gave up official motorcycle production during WW2 (he did assemble a few during the conflict, from leftover stock and bent machines) the precision engineering business he'd pursued during the War continued for many years, the business changing hands twice since then, first to the Card family, and now to the Mark Upham equipe, who are building brand new 'to 1927 spec' Brough Superior 'SS110's.

1962; the restored Brough, back to 'Old Bill' spec, with 'Titch' Allen aboard, George Brough behind  (smiling, with cap and goggles) and Ike Webb at far right

'Old Bill' passed from 'Titch' Allen to his son Roger, who sadly lost his life racing at the Isle of Man.  Roger's widow has displayed the machine at the Nottingham Industrial Museum since, and is now coming for auction on October 4th, at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, along with the rest of the Roger Allen collection.

George Brough in 1962 having one last 'go' on 'Old Bill' at the very Clipstone 'track' (really the driveway to a private estate, paved in gravel!) where he last raced the machine in 1923.

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ROBERT HUGHES: ART CRITIC, MOTORCYCLIST

Art critic Robert Hughes in 1986

A champion of Motorcycling has died after a long illness; Robert Hughes, creator/host of the 'Shock of the New' television series and long-time art critic for Time magazine.  While artists and public television watchers knew Hughes for his acerbic opinions on art and artists (he once described the work of Jeff Koons as "so overexposed it loses nothing in reproduction and gains nothing in the original"), he was also a motorcycle fan.  More importantly, he was the most visible and well-known art critic to defend the inclusion of motorcycles in the Guggenheim Museum, at the 'Art of the Motorcycle' show.

Robert Hughes with the Honda CB750 he mentions in his infamous Time magazine review of the 'Art of the Motorcycle' exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum (photo -w/notes- from the Duluth Art Institue blog).  And isn't that jacket something!

The most famous art critic in the world 'came out' as an avid motorcyclist in his Aug 18, 1998 column in Time magazine, 'Art: Going Out on the Edge':
"The fact that the great spiral of New York City's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is at present full of motorcycles has annoyed some critics. Not this one. If the Museum of Modern Art can hang a helicopter from its ceiling, why can't the Guggenheim show bikes? "The Art of the Motorcycle" may seem an opportunistic title until you actually see the things. Design is design, a fit subject for museum consideration, and in any case I'd rather look at a rampful of glittering dream machines than any number of tasteful Scandinavian vases or floppy fiber art."

Cliff Vaughs' 'Captain America' chopper, called by Hughes '...a distinctive form of American folk art."

The article laments the inclusion of only a single 'custom' motorcycle in the 'Art of the Motorcycle' show; the 'Captain America' chopper designed by Cliff Vaughs for the film 'Easy Rider': "...everything in [the show] is stock, so that it ignores the creative ingenuity that has gone into making the custom bike one of the distinctive forms of American folk art."
Of course, the international explosion of Custom motorcycles since this 1998 article has merely reinforced Hughes' opinion on their importance at the 'art' end of the motorcycle spectrum.

Robert Hughes in his motorcycling days, ca.1972

Hughes wrote of owning two Norton Commandos before moving on to Honda CB750s in the early 1970s, and to having a bad accident on a Kawasaki, which ended his biking career.  A fascinating and controversial writer, he drew from a deep reservoir of historical knowledge to support his arguments, whether or not you agreed with them.  More important to The Vintagent, that seminal Time article championing Motorcycles was read by millions, far more than than were able to attend the Guggenheim show itself, and helped usher a sea change in public opinion about bikes, as worthy subjects of study and exhibition.

For Hughes' obituary in the New York Times, click here.
For a selection of his scathing art criticism, click here.

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1930 RUDGE RACER

A picture full of appeal; Vintage-era racing bikes are light and purposeful.

Manuel Parra of Spain sent photos of his just-completed restoration of a 1930 'TT' Rudge, which was originally raced in France under pilot Ric Felix Llamdo.  A French collector owned it for many years, and began the process of restoration, and on his death, Manuel purchased the Rudge, and finished the job.  There are quite a few unique features on the racer, added no doubt by the Llamdo during the course of his racing career, including the very FN-like 'pistol grip' fuel tank, and French tachometer and control levers.

The Rudge 4-valve pushrod engine; note ingenious method of opening two valves with a single pushrod.  The near-side rocker opens the far-side valve via a 'rocker arm' across the top of the cylinder head.  Simple and durable, as smaller valves need lighter springs, with consequently less load on the valve train.

The Rudge 'Ulster' was the top of the range model from Rudge's hottest years on the track; they dominated the Isle of Man TT in 1930, after many years battling with Sunbeam and Norton for supremacy.  Sunbeam had already won their last TT in 1929, taking first and second place in the Senior TT under Charlie Dodson and and Alec Bennett...while Rudge, Norton, Velocette, DOT, Cotton, and Montgomery filled the Top 10 that year, a veritable poem to a lost British motorcycle industry, once world-dominating, now largely forgotten.   In 1930, Rudge engineer George Hicks redesigned their signature four-valve cylinder head for more power, which worked well enough to relegate Jimmy Simpson on his Arthur Carroll-designed Norton, and Charlie Dodson on his Sunbeam, to third and fourth places.

Graham Walker after his second place the 1930 Isle of Man TT, having a well-deserved smoke!

Little did they all know in 1930 that the Isle of Man TT, the toughest and most prestigious road race in the world, would never again see a pushrod-engined machine win the prestigious 'Senior' race.  By the 1931 TT, Norton had sorted out their engine and chassis issues with the new 'Carroll' OHC motor, which would dominate racing for the next two decades, as the 'International', then the 'Manx Grand Prix', and finally, simply the 'Manx'.

Wonderful hand-numbered tachometer, which Manuel wisely kept 'as found'

The Rudge 'Ulster' and later 'TT Replica' models were still potent racers, taking many firsts in European road racing for years to come, and

Manuel included 'before' and 'after' photos...and isn't it a pity the machine couldn't be kept in the 'before' state?  Hard won racing patina is a mighty sexy finish...

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