1930 Sunbeam Model 90 factory racer lives again

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Dodson

I was very pleased to receive a phone call from VMCC OEC and Blackburne Marque Specialist Martin Shelley telling me that John Rooney’s Sunbeam Model 90 was up and running!

There’s more information about this wonderful and possibly unique machine in an earlier post that you can view here. But since then, Chris Odling has worked his magic on the engine whilst Martin and John have worked on the rest of the bike. The guys have resisted the temptation to “restore” the bike and instead have strived to keep as much of the bike in as-found condition as possible. With original factory finish on many parts and many of the correct factory fasteners this bike could become a Rosetta Stone for the vintage Sunbeam enthusiast.

After evicting the mice and filling a few holes, even the original exhausts that are stamped with IOM ’30 S in reference to the 1930 Senior TT have been repaired and re-fitted.

There’s a short video here where you can see and hear the bike running. It does sound very different to my own 1930 Model 90 and seems to respond quicker to throttle and with less flywheel effect on the overrun. I just can’t wait to see and hear the bike “in the metal”.

Marston Sunbeam Club Rally 2014

Gallery

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Dodson

This gallery contains 22 photos.

The Marston Sunbeam Club was again made to feel very welcome at the Wolverhampton Rugby Club where the annual Rally weekend was held. Running from the Friday through to Sunday there was a full programme of events including A 25 … Continue reading →

Sunbeam Model 9 pistons now in stock in the Sunbeamland shop

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Dodson

I’m pleased to report that a rather pretty box containing a small batch of low-compression Sunbeam pistons arrived this morning. Like the 7.5 :1 CR Model 90 versions produced earlier, these are a lightweight forged item but will give around 6.5 : 1 CR depending on the head and barrel combination in use. Targeted at the Model 9 it is suitable for late 20’s early 30’s 500cc OHV bikes and we have limited availability of both +0.020″ and +0.040″ over-sizes.

Our research showed that the weight of Model 9 pistons varies surprisingly depending on both year and manufacture. After collecting and checking pistons from Marston, Heplex and Specialloid a target weight of 400g was achieved for the new item – including rings, pin and clips.

Once we have given the new arrivals a good look-over we’ll be making contact with those who have already reserved their pistons. So be quick if you don’t want to miss out!

Les Newman Memorial Run 2014

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Dodson

A great day out in the sun was had by all at this year’s Les Newman Memorial Run. The day was organised by ace restorer John Phizacklea and hosted by Rob and Joe Selbourne at Prebendal Farm, Bishopstone. Next year the event may well be opened to other marques but this year at least it was well supported with 13 of Marston’s finest taking a spin around the 40 mile ~~track~~ route.

The event is a tribute to local hero Les Newman who raced his Sunbeams throughout the ’30s and famously used the lanes around the area as “practice” for his races on the Isle Of Man. My own ’30 Model 90 was raced by Newman at the 1934 Manx Grand Prix where he was given a special award following his 69.28mph lap “in recognition of a fine ride on a 4 year old”. After missing last year’s run it was great to finally bring the bike back home and to enjoy the lanes it must have known so well. I’m not sure that Les found time to stop for a pint on the way round his course but if he ever did, I’m sure that he wouldn’t have found this gentleman guarding the entrance to the hostelry where we stopped for a quick one.

With John taking his own 95 for a spin there were indeed some fine bikes enjoying the superb roads and scenery including a JAP twin and Parallel 9 amongst the Model 9s, 90s and side-valves.

As I habitually use a van to transport the bikes I was shamed by the distances that had been ridden to the event by some of the participants. Jez Cator, who had ridden up from Portsmouth and camped over-night at the farm, was rightly presented the furthest distance travelled award by Vic Youel. The day was rounded off back at the world’s tidiest farm with a fine spread of sandwiches and cake. More photos from the day can be viewed here.

However, I was particularly excited to see the ex-Smedley 95 that John has recently acquired and that young Chris let off the leash for a canter around the lanes.

The amazing story and history of the Smedley bikes surely deserves recording and telling in much more detail than I can even begin to attempt here. However, being built for race, sprints and hill-climbing by the Rolls-Royce engineer the bikes represent the absolute pinnacle of engineering excellence. They weigh next-to-nothing but with over 50hp at the rear wheel I am sure you can imagine the result.

Having had Chris blast pass me earlier in a blur of speed, noise and Castrol R, I was keen to take the bike for a short spin. I have to say that it really was a staggering, eye-opening experience. The low gearing obviously helps but the bike just pulls, revs and accelerates like a mad thing and it is easy to believe the 3 sec 0-60mph times are quite possible. Despite the performance on hand, it was surprisingly easy to ride at sensible speeds too with just the occasional pop and bang to let you know it was getting impatient for the taps to be opened. This amazing bike could take on and shock even modern sports bike riders, at least with the right rider on board it could….

Stafford Classic Motorcycle Show 2014

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dodson

Another year, another great Stafford show and the ’28 Model 90 makes her first appearance in polite society.

It went to the wire but John Phizacklea pulled out all the stops to get the bike ready in time for the 2014 Stafford Classic Motorcycle show. After abandoning the grid-locked M6, John faced a tortuous 3 hour cross-country journey that coincidentally took him right past the Wolverhampton Sunbeamland factory. Perhaps fitting that the first journey of the newly rebuilt bike should include the place where it was first constructed. Finally arriving at 6pm we quickly unloaded the bike and set it up in the private entries area from where, after a final polish, we were shortly ejected.

We are incredibly pleased with the final result and hope that the bike is a fitting testament to the skills of the “holy trinity” who made this possible.

Of course Peter Woodward must take massive credit for the bike and he is responsible for the detail, accuracy and authenticity of the majority of the components and engineering on the bike. Not withstanding the quality of the major elements of the bike Peter’s touches are everywhere that you look from the ’28 only angular profile of the silencers to the double-curvature mudguard washers to the English Lever toolbox lock.

The crank and cases in particular needed serious attention and without Chris Odling’s vast engineering skills and experience we would have been in some serious trouble. Chris must have the patience of a saint to put up with my constant badgering but despite this, he found the time to put together an engine and gearbox package that should last another 80 years.

And finally, John Phizacklea despite suffering my interminable phone calls, perhaps even more than Chris, has pulled it all together. The wheel building alone was a mammoth exercise as the spoke nipples are individually hand turned to match the profile of the original Sunbeam items. Not only does John have the engineering background, experience and capability to do the 1001 jobs needed on a project such as this but the bike is topped off with a coat of John’s trademark, deep black liquid gloss paintwork.

Thanks guys.

The gear masher

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Dodson

Can you tell what’s going on here? Never a Sunbeam’s strongest point, a total of 4 missing teeth from this CT layshaft were located in the bottom of the gearbox housing. So that’s the 1930 M90 off the road until we can find a replacement set of cogs. It’s hard to tell what has gone wrong with this remanufactured set but a backfire whilst bump-starting the bike seems to have been the final straw for this particular old donkey.

Rich beyond the dreams of avarice

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Dodson

What a lash up!!! Just in case anyone was wondering how the carburation was developing on the 1930 M90 I thought I’d post this picture of the steps taken to check and correct the float height on the Amac 10MDY currently fitted to the bike. It’s the wrong carb for the year and I’d like a later Amal 29/001 if anyone can help but “we are where we are” on this one…

The Amal twin floats are most likely 15 degree items that have been machined to operate on the level so to speak. But they were clearly never designed to operate with the Amac. After making up a new, elongated float chamber holding bolt complete with a spigot for some clear plastic pipe it was easy to see that the float level was some 6mm too high. Adding the aluminium spacer drops the level back downwards and this setup should help with fine tuning once back on the bike. I’ll make up a proper brass spacer and new banjo bolt once the correct dimensions are established as the existing one is too short to work with the spacer.

All this is yet another example of how much time can be spent trying to get groups of disparate components from different eras to work together with some degree of harmony.

Amac 10MDY needle jet adapter

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Dodson

Having recently re-acquired my little Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe I found time over the Xmas holiday period to experiment with a little project that I’ve had in mind for a short while. I had noticed that the ’30 M90 was running rich at running-in speeds and sooting up the plug. Not a major problem, but closer investigation revealed a home-made needle jet in the Amac 10MDY carb.

Although, conveniently, this needle jet was made to accept the later small Amal main jets it was badly worn and the likely cause of rich running low-down. I asked around but was unable to locate any replacement needle jets or needles for that matter. So, following a chat with the ever helpful (and patient) Martin Bratby I decided to look into producing an adapter that would allow 29 series needle jets and needles to be used with the earlier Amac carb.

After a few false starts I came up with a design that could be produce on the little Emco. It was tight as there isn’t much wall-thickness to play with if everything is going to line up correctly but I was pleased with the result. The photo above shows the Amac jet-block with an original needle/main jet assembly next to a 29 needle/main jet screwed into one of the new adapters.

The next job is of course to try one on the bike to see how well it works. The plan is to start off with a 106 needle jet and the middle-clip of a 29 needle. I’ll probably adjust the position of the needle jet up/down in the adapter to fine-tune rather than move the needle clip itself as the “correct” relationship between slide-needle-needle jet is of course difficult to establish when mixing and matching the 29 and 10MDY elements.

To help with this, I have use of a decidedly un-1930s Innovate LM-2 AFR data logger that uses a Bosch car-type Lambda sensor rammed up the exhaust pipe to monitor the exhaust gases. Once lashed up on the bike, it is relatively easy to record the air-fuel-ratio at different throttle openings, engine speed and load. This makes fine-tuning of carburation using the modern fuels a lot less hit-and-miss for someone with my lack of sensitivity in such matters.

Druid fork handlebar clamps

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Dodson

I was short of a set of handlebar clamps for the ’28 bull nose Model 90 that we are working on and so had a few sets cast and machined-up using an original Marston clamp from the ’30 bike as a pattern. They came out quite nicely in high-tensile brass and will be serving in place of decorations over the Christmas period.

Handlebar clamps for Sunbeam motorcycles with Druid rather than the later Webb-type forks.

I had a few extra sets produced and will put them on the shop in due course in case anyone out there is also in need of a set.

Sunbeams at the National Motorcycle Museum

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Dodson

Many thanks to Rob from Racing Lines Derby for a grand day out at the TT riders Association luncheon yesterday. This annual celebration of TT riders past and present was held at the National Motorcycle Museum. Whilst Nick Jeffries acted as MC, we shared a table with the legendary and apposite John Cooper. Others present included 5-times in a week TT winner Ian Hutchinson and Triumph factory rider Percy Tait. Publisher and TT rider Malcolm Wheeler rode into dinner on a Ducati to take over presidency of the association.

Beforehand, we squeaked a couple of hours to check-out one or two of the many wonderful exhibits.

It is of course impossible to do justice to such a collection so I didn’t bother. Instead, I took a lot of photos of the Sunbeams on display which included a number that were restored by our good friend Peter Woodward. These included a Model 80, Model 9 and two Model 90s and they can be seen in the gallery together with many other detail shots.

Debates about provenance may continue in certain circles but the 1925 Sunbeam Sprint must be one of the most beautiful bikes in the museum.

Ex-Dance racer, unbeatable in its day

Art-deco masterpiece

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Old and vintage motorcycles for old and vintage enthusiasts

Tag Archives: Model 90