| Holy Grail' of motorcycle parts fetch $300,000 more than expected at UK auction |
Motorcycle spare parts accumulated by a Sydney enthusiast have sold at auction in the UK for more than the median price of a home in Sydney.
Rare Brough Superior parts collected over 40 years by the late Gary Ross raced past pre-sale estimates, fetching in excess of $1.3 million at Bonhams' Stafford sale overnight.
The parts from two-and-a-half bikes were from the same make of machines as that favoured by Lawrence of Arabia. He died on one swerving to avoid child cyclists.
The bits, sold by his widow, Elaine Ross, attracted enthusiastic bidding at Bonhams' specialist motorbike sale, with two lots selling for more than $500,000 each.
Disassembled project parts for a 1926 Superior 980cc SS100 Alpine Grand Sport fetched £236,700 (AU$ 503,711), while parts for a 1927 Alpine Grand Sport fetched £259,100 (AU$ 551,380).
Bonhams specialist Merryn Schriever said it was extremely rare to see complete parts for a Brough Superior come to auction, let alone two, and the market had responded accordingly.
"These motorbikes are considered the Holy Grail in the vintage collector's motorcycle world and the chance to restore one is rarer than hen's teeth," Ms Schriever said.
"Only around 380 Brough Superior SS100s were built between 1924 and 1940, when production ended, and models from 1926 and 1927 are particularly prized."
Ms Schriever said it had been Mr Ross' lifelong ambition to ride a Brough Superior, but he sadly passed away last year aged 69 before fulfilling his dream.
"Gary was a true Brough connoisseur and devoted much of his life to collecting, restoring and cataloguing the bikes," she said.
"Though he sadly passed away before he could finish – and finally ride – a Brough Superior, the phenomenal results of this sale are a fitting legacy for his years of hard work and will be much appreciated by his family."
One bike he bought was already dismantled in England.
"It's like if you drive a Holden or a Subaru but you fancy a Ferrari, so you get some Ferrari parts with the intention of building one."
Mr Ross died at the age of 69 but was riding motorbikes almost to the end.
She said that despite their sometimes straitened circumstances she never suggested he should get rid of the bike parts.
"Those bikes were never about money. We didn't have a lot of money. If he had sold them life would have been more comfortable for us but that isn't what life was about.
"I had no idea of the value of them until Bonham's Ben Walker came out from England."
"They were the superbikes of the 1920s and the sort of thing any motorcycle enthusiast would dream of finding," Walker said.
The parts were always well cared for - the couple's Alfa Romeo sat in the car port while the parts went in the garage.
"I think the engines themselves were in the lounge room," Mrs Ross said.
"They were in wooden boxes and the television sat on them.
"The bikes were more precious to him than life itself."
Gary and future wife Elaine had met at a "beef and burgundy" fundraiser at Narrabeen where Gary asked her to dance. A month later they decided to marry.
"He had a couple of Vincent [motorbikes]. I'd had a motorbike myself, a postie bike to go to work on," Mrs Ross said.
"So I was quite happy to go on the back of a bike ... he bought one Brough Superior engine from a fellow over on the northern beaches but I didn't take much notice. It was just a motorbike engine."
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