I bought a motorbike for £150 50 years ago – now I’ve sold it for an incredible £280,000 at auction
A PENSIONER who bought a classic bike 50 years ago for £150 has been left stunned after selling it for a whopping £280,000.
Derek Prior, from Aldershot, Surrey, bought the bike in 1973 and rode it for 20 years before putting it into storage until this year.
The 1931 Brough Superior SS100, which was nicknamed the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles at the time of its production, is a stunning classic.
The bike in question is believed to be from the same batch as the one Lawrence of Arabia was riding at the time of his death in 1935.
Regarded as the world’s first superbike, the Superior had a top speed of 130mph.
Retired aircraft engineer Derek bought it from a pal half a century ago for the equivalent of about £800 in today’s money.
Now, he is celebrating selling it for around 1,900 times more than he paid back in the day.
It fuelled a bidding war at auctioneers Bonhams at their Stafford sale and eventually went under the hammer for £281,750.
Derek said: “I was all too aware of the SS100’s notoriety, especially as I worked as an aircraft engineer for Vickers at the historic Brooklands race circuit where, in 1939, an SS100 took the all-time track record of 124.51mph.”
The bike will need to undergo a restoration process but should still be rideable.
It is one of just 3,000 made by inventor George Brough between 1920 and 1940.
Ben Walker, international department director at Bonhams Motorcycles, said: “It’s always a joy to find a machine with such a high level of integrity and originality – and one that has been loved and maintained by its engineer owner.
“The fact that such a prestigious motorcycle – the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles – remains in the largely unmolested condition is very unusual.
“It offers the next owner the tantalising choice of either maintaining its patina or restoring it to its former ‘show specification’.
“I don’t envy the person having to make that decision.”
It comes after another Brough is set to fetch a similar price when it goes up for auction in the near future.