Simviation Forums

Every once in a while, you come across something quite rare.....

Wendy and I stumbled upon this at a motorcycle dealer on the island here. It has just been brought in by a young lad from Manchester who purchased the thing in its year of production.....

He rides it daily and keeps it, as you can see, ...leak free and clean !

I've given the type but it may take Foz to fill in the date......of course I already know it, but I know that Paul is something of an encyclopaedia on this type of vehicle...

A little ray of Sunshine, Ken!...(Like Wendy)...

A familiar sight for me in the early 1950's, when I rode my 1949 Royal Enfield 350cc Bullet..(The Original One!).

Sunbeam S7 and S8!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_S7_and_S8

S7 with fat tyres....S8 with thin tyres!

Very smooth as I remember!

Wonderful shots, Ken!...an excellent find!... ...!

Paul.... ...!

P.S...OHA 484...A Birmingham (England) registration! My 1948, 998cc Vincent-HRD Rapide number plate was; OHA 630!

P.P.S. just completed a fantastic Sunday tour all around Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Wales on my little Speed Machine (Yamaha RX-S 100!) on a wonderful sunny day!

Love that old Sunbeam. Funny thing about old motorbikes. I had an old 1939 Royal Enfield Model G, the forerunner of the Bullet. I sold it to buy a 1947 Vincent HRD Rapide. It was a toss up with my cousin who wanted it badly. I won and he ended up buying a Sunbeam. Numbers didn't match tho, mine was LTT80, his was AWK something.

logjam wrote:Love that old Sunbeam. Funny thing about old motorbikes. I had an old 1939 Royal Enfield Model G, the forerunner of the Bullet. I sold it to buy a 1947 Vincent HRD Rapide. It was a toss up with my cousin who wanted it badly. I won and he ended up buying a Sunbeam. Numbers didn't match tho, mine was LTT80, his was AWK something.

Interestingly, Log...

Out of all my British bikes from 1950 to 1976 (when I went over to Japanese bikes), the most troublesome bike of mine was my 1948 Vincent-HRD Rapide!
A total sod to kick start with its weak Magneto, and various mechanical failures due to its complexity:
Oil on the centrifugal dry clutch (clutch slip), shattered cast iron idler wheel stripping the teeth on the fibre Magneto pinion, excessive play in the overhead rocker assembly, play in the Girdraulic front forks, collapsing dual shocks on the rear wheel...etc...etc...
...and BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE to kick start!....(similar to a BSA 500cc DBD 34 Gold Star!)... ...!
Sold it as a "Basket Case" in 1992 for £6,000....and bought a beautiful red and black 1992 Honda CBR 600 FM Super Sport, 600cc water-cooled four cylinder dream machine...got stolen in 1996 never to be seen again!
Thinking back, (as you do), probably my best British bike was my 1958 BSA Super Rocket 650cc OHV twin (Café Racer), iron block+alloy head... ...!
It would be nice to have it now... ....or NOT?.... ...probably NOT!.... ....!

Overall, the Japanese bikes which followed them were/are so much better built, and a zillion times more reliable...and they had ELECTRIC start, with a push button!...and FUN!.... ...!

"Old British Bike nostalgia" can be a VERY BAD THING!....Trust me!... ... ...!

Paul...with all my various Japanese Steeds!... ...!

I never owned a motor bike that didn't give me any trouble at all. Closest I can remember was the '69 or '70 BSA Bantam 175D I was co-erced into buying from a chap that got posted to Hong-Kong. Nobody wanted it because it had dual coils and 2 plugs and it was only 175cc. I stripped the peel fairing off and changed the thruxton bars for scrambles type and rode it faultlessly for 2 years before I too got posted to Canada. I loved the Japanese 4's that I owned except for the vibration I got in my elbows. I now have a New Delhi Royal Enfield 350cc Bullet which looks and feels like an old army bike which also hasn't given me any bother except for not wanting to ride it longer than the occasional parade. My old Vincent was a bugger to start too and I had more than one sprained ankle from it. Yes motorcycling has gotten more pleasurable with the passing of time.

What a beautifull bike. I never had the chance to ride anything that old but I do still remember my first bike having drum brakes . One thing about the old bikes though, you didnt have to spend an hour to change an air filter or 4 hours to change plugs. Nothing like the new bikes that require you to almost dismantle the whole bike to do regular maintanance .

Keep smiling
Tug

Log.... ...

Old British Bike Enthusiasts should be herded together and escorted to the nearest, local, Funny-Farm, in straight-jackets, whilst they still retain a modicum of common sense between their ears*.... ... ...!
I see them parked on the side of the road...complete with the obligatory Tool Kit laid out in preparation for the major operation!

At least your new/latest Royal Enfield Bullet has a modern engine, 12-volt electrics, and electric start..and non-plastic tyres!

..and you don't get Boot Stud/Horse-shoe spikes, and lose gravel on the roads any-more...hopefully!

The golden age of Motorcycling.... ....NAH!.... ....!

Been there, done it, got the BSA Tee-Shirt... ...!

Paul....Yamaha RD 2-Strokes Rule!..... ...!

* Sorry, Old British Bike Enthusiasts... ... ...!

Tug002 wrote:What a beautifull bike. I never had the chance to ride anything that old but I do still remember my first bike having drum brakes . One thing about the old bikes though, you didn't have to spend an hour to change an air filter or 4 hours to change plugs. Nothing like the new bikes that require you to almost dismantle the whole bike to do regular maintenance .

Keep smiling
Tug

Tug..... ..!...

Modern bikes don't go wrong... ....

..and you get someone else to do the occasional maintenance for you....(Mate, relatives, next-door neighbour, etc...)...

The Japanese got it right... ...!

Paul...with spotlessly clean, silky-smooth hands and fingernails... ...!

That is a handsome looking ride

Fozzer wrote:

Tug002 wrote:What a beautifull bike. I never had the chance to ride anything that old but I do still remember my first bike having drum brakes . One thing about the old bikes though, you didn't have to spend an hour to change an air filter or 4 hours to change plugs. Nothing like the new bikes that require you to almost dismantle the whole bike to do regular maintenance .

Keep smiling
Tug

Tug..... ..!...

Modern bikes don't go wrong... ....

..and you get someone else to do the occasional maintenance for you....(Mate, relatives, next-door neighbour, etc...)...

The Japanese got it right... ...!

Paul...with spotlessly clean, silky-smooth hands and fingernails... ...!

Made the mistake of taking the bike into a dealer to have the oil changed and it cost me $125 for an oil change I could have done myself for $50. Thats what I get for being Lazy . But yes you are right, the bikes now have little to no matianance involved other than checking tire pressure and looking for burnt out signal bulbs and such.

Keep smiling
Tug

Tug002 wrote:
Made the mistake of taking the bike into a dealer to have the oil changed and it cost me $125 for an oil change I could have done myself for $50. Thats what I get for being Lazy . But yes you are right, the bikes now have little to no matianance involved other than checking tire pressure and looking for burnt out signal bulbs and such.

Keep smiling
Tug

Don't really want to throw a spanner in the works here, but I seem to be doing maintenance all the time on me '06 Bandit......what, with constantly filling the tank up front with Petrol (gas here), then doing oil changes almost every month, and the five sets of tyres have cost me a few bucks in the past 6 yrs .......Japanese bikes...?
Oh yeah, losing the last bit of the original rear brake pad as I dropped down from Seton Lake into Lillooet two yrs ago was no fun.....good thing I have twin front rotors.......missed another maintenance stop there, for that to happen....! ...

Well well Rifleman, so that was you outside the Reynolds hotel with a crowd of on lookers gathered around. Shame I missed you, could have given you a lift to Kamloops to the nearest Bike shop.

Note the location of the number plate on the front mudguard (fender) of the Sunbeam bike...

No longer Legal...for obvious reasons..dividing people in half!!....>>>>

http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-talk/11 ... ender.html

Our Motorbikes only display a rear number plate now...none in the front.

Paul....one of the other halves... ...!

I could never understand the thinking behind many of the old british "Motor vehicles Construction and Use Act" laws. many were suicidal. While most involved cars such as 2 tone cars must have the "colours" divide horizontally at the division of the door line and the roof. Another was concerned with semaphore signals. When they were made illegal they allowed "bunny ears" attached to the roof, one either side. That eventually was replaced by the front and rear lsignal lighting scheme we see today. Motor bikes were to have front and rear chain guards attached as standard only after much lobbying. Cars we see in US magazines called "Hot Rods" were illegal for many years because they didn't conform. That's probably why the UK falls way behind the USA in many areas. On the other hand, who'd ever dream of cutting down and lowering a Jag and replacing the engine with a Chev V8?

logjam wrote:I could never understand the thinking behind many of the old british "Motor vehicles Construction and Use Act" laws. many were suicidal. While most involved cars such as 2 tone cars must have the "colours" divide horizontally at the division of the door line and the roof. Another was concerned with semaphore signals. When they were made illegal they allowed "bunny ears" attached to the roof, one either side. That eventually was replaced by the front and rear lsignal lighting scheme we see today. Motor bikes were to have front and rear chain guards attached as standard only after much lobbying. Cars we see in US magazines called "Hot Rods" were illegal for many years because they didn't conform. That's probably why the UK falls way behind the USA in many areas. On the other hand, who'd ever dream of cutting down and lowering a Jag and replacing the engine with a Chev V8?

The lack of rear chain guards on some Motorcycles, whether on or off road, is always a source of great worry for me every time I see them!
The thought of the rider's or pillion's leg/arm getting caught in the chain, with or without an accident, with the back wheel spinning, is a terrifying thought!
The same goes for the exposed primary-drive belts on some Harley Davidson Choppers/Bobbers!

...and the similar hazard of the handlebars removing your family jewels as you accelerate over/through the handlebars in the event of a front end collision...brings tears to the eyes!... ...!

Paul....trying not to think about it!.... ...!