Still haven’t looked at the Sunbeam that I need to get going so that I can sell it.
Don't give up on that Sunbeam. I have just finished mine and I love it.
We have not seen you at the Rising Sun for a while. Come up next month and hopefully we can give you some inspiration to have another go at it.
Jim
The Sunbeam is a sad story – and tied up to my A10. It may be one I’ve told before.
The first holiday I had with my girlfriend, now wife, was to St Just at the tip of Cornwall in 1979. We rode down from mid-Essex on the A10 that I had not long bought, in the company of my pal on his TR6P Saint with his girlfriend – my girlfriend’s best pal. My A10 gave no end of trouble that week and ended up being towed behind my mate’s Trumpet all the way home from around Plymouth at the end of the week. We put the girls on the train at Exeter with as much of the luggage as they could manage. Whilst we were in St Just there was an S7D in that lovely mist green parked outside one of the cottages. It really caught my imagination and was on my mind ever after.
Eventually luck and some money came my way, and after some haggling I bought a 1950 model from a vendor on ebay. It was not cheap. He had just completed putting it back together and it came with loads of receipts for new parts. And that’s where my luck ran out. That must have been maybe around 4 years or so ago now. I had to fit a new Stuarts Concentric before it would run. Spent some small amount of time determining that the motor actually did have pretty much zero oil pressure, and then work around the half timing wheel, and pulling out all of the oddly bodged oil filtration in the sump made no difference. Replaced the knackered clutch whilst I was in there. Had Stuarts sort the dynamo at some huge expense. Then gave up and handed it over to Clive who went right through the motor, gearbox and drive box. Bottom line was that the engine had previously been assembled with no great care at all, to the extent that most of the new stuff in there now needed replacing again. And he found that some much earlier historic head replacement had led to misaligned oil feed to the head and the cam was scrap too.
So I’ve thrown effort and money and love at it. I’ve had a marque expert work his magic on it. And it still won’t’ run for more than a few miles before it just quits. And yes I’ve been through the entire fuel supply side, and all new ign components, even switching to a wasted spark approach – at which point it now won’t run at all.
Now in many ways I am a rational man, but I am prone to ascribing sentient behaviour to what can only be inanimate objects (bikes). I show them love and look after them, and they look after me. And that actually pretty much works. This bike will not respond to that. I now hate it. And in all honesty, they may to some extent be chalk and cheese, but my A10 is just such a better bike in every single way. I did not renew my membership to SoF this year and I’m not worthy to move amongst the company of the Sunshine Boys – but please do extend my regards to them.
