Brough and Richard Mille join forces for the RMB01

The modern-day Brough Superior company has a long history of doing special things with its V-twin engine platform while partnered with other halo brands. Most notably, in recent years, was its tie-in with Aston Martin, with the supercharged AMB 001 dropping jaws at every motorcycle show it went to.

Making people gawp at this year's raft of international bike shows will be this machine, the RMB01, a collaboration between Brough and the super-premium watchmaker Richard Mille. The Brough website describes the bike as “a true work of art paying homage to speed and craftsmanship”, and from looking at the images of the machine, it’s hard to disagree.

Shunning Brough’s trend for creating nearly-naked machines, instead, the RMB01 features a small half fairing design. It’s almost Tuono-like (if you squint - a lot!) and features winglets protruding on each side. At the heart of the bike is Brough’s familiar V-twin cylinder, 997cc, four-valve engine, only this time, it’s turbocharged! In RMB-spec, it boasts a claimed 130bhp, which has us wondering what those winglets are actually for.

Sitting on top of the engine is an all-new fuel tank and seat unit, which seems to be made up of lots of forged carbon fibre. Now, carbon fibre, be it forged or woven, is nice enough to look at, but the clocks of this bike are where things get really drool-worthy!

Richard Mille, in case you didn’t know, makes super snazzy watches that put the mechanism of the watch front and centre in the design. They are the favoured timepiece of lots of F1 drivers, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being two notable ones - thanks in part to a sponsorship deal with their team, McLaren. It looks like Brough has completely handed over the design of the rev-counter and speedo to Richard Mille for this one, and the result is just stunning.

Beneath the glass, you can see gear mechanisms and all the inner workings of the dial, just like you can on RM’s watches. It’s a very beautiful feature, although, quite how you’d be able to keep your eyes on the road with that all whirring away under your chin is beyond me! Really, though, winding on the throttle on one of these will probably never happen, given that just 150 are being built and that a standard Brough model is knocking on the door of £100k - once you’ve tickled the options list a bit. Most of the people who will be bagging one of these will also own a huge yacht, probably moored off Monaco.

Find out more about the bike on the official website.

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