Brough get tough: Desert-inspired ‘Lawrence Nefud’ adds scrambler style to top-spec retro

This glorious neo-classic, scrambler-style roadster is the latest model from boutique performance bike brand Brough Superior.

The £50,000 Lawrence Nefud is based on the Lawrence roadster which the Anglo/French firm launched last year as a more modern take on the luxurious V-twins and was named after the brand’s most illustrious customer – Captain T.E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia.

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That bike was conceived as a limited-edition, more modern evolution of the heritage-inspired SS100 V-twins by Brough (which was relaunched in 2014 by business partners Brit Mark Upham, who bought the defunct brand in 2008, and French engineering genius Thierry Henriette, formerly of Boxer Bikes). And the new Brough company began producing machines in 2016.

The latest offering uses the firm’s signature 997cc, 102bhp liquid-cooled V-twin, titanium frame and novel Hossack/Fior-style front suspension and conventional 19/17in wheels (the SS100s had 18s) and brakes, new subframe and saddle (to make it a two-seater), upswept exhausts, revised clocks and more.

The Nefud takes things further still by adding fashionable scrambler styling via a more upright riding position with higher, trail-style bars and lower pegs, new wheels with semi-knobbly Michelin Anakee tyres, twin side-mounted, high-rise exhausts, blacked-out chassis components, bash plate, fly screen, protective headlight grille as well as a special rust-red paintjob inspired by desert sand.

The name, meanwhile, is from the An Nefud desert in the Northern Arabian peninsula, a place, Brough say, which was much loved by Lawrence and is near the site of the Battle of Aqaba, his greatest victory during the Arab revolt of 1917.

Despite its scrambler style, however, we don’t expect many Nefuds to venture into the dirt. Although the weight has been cut to 200kg, that fancy front end isn’t particularly off-road friendly and, although Brough are yet to release prices and production numbers, with just 188 Lawrence models being built at their facility in Toulouse, France, costing €66,000 (currently £52,000) apiece and with the Nefud likely to be even more exclusive, proper ‘scrambling’ is the last place we expect to see it. It does look pretty damn handsome though.