• The Roadster Factory Recovery Fund - Friends, as you may have heard, The Roadster Factory, a respected British Car Parts business in PA, suffered a total loss in a fire on Christmas Day. Read about it, discuss or ask questions >> HERE. The Triumph Register of America is sponsoring a fund raiser to help TRF get back on their feet. If you can help, vist >> their GoFundMe page.
  • Hey there Guest!
    If you enjoy BCF and find our forum a useful resource, if you appreciate not having ads pop up all over the place and you want to ensure we can stay online - Please consider supporting with an "optional" low-cost annual subscription.
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this UGLY banner)
Tips
Tips

Hello from Suffolk, England, UK.

Bfg

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
Hi Gents, and perhaps Ladies ?

As the Title says "Hello from Suffolk, England, UK". Oddly.. I don't have a British made car at the moment but I do have five classic Brit. motorcycles, two of which I'll be selling soon to afford a Triumph TR, preferably a TR4, 4A or 5 / 250. Otherwise my Daily driver is an '04 Chrysler Voyager (excellent vehicles in my opinion) and I also have an old and now rare Citroen Ami-super c.1974 which I bought in Slovenia. Citroen had a satellite factory there when it was Yugoslavia, and CIMOS built my car. This being a British car forum, I guess most of you would not have heard of Cimos nor of the Ami-Super. That car too is to be sold to fund life, my sail boat (cottage on the water), and this TR project.

Redundancy forced early retirement on me so I have time but not a bundle of money. I used to be a design engineer and then restored post-war Sunbeam motorcycles. I lived & worked in the US for six year ..I like the place :eagerness: as I work in yacht build and design (Annapolis and then down in New Orleans). I also managed a car resto shop for a while in Virginia. At that time my daily drive was a TR3a without a top. Chilly but fun in the snow.

I brought a TR4 back with me to England and restored that, but life being what it is I had to sell her. I really liked everything about that car so it one of things I regret. The other was being made redundant when I worked down in New Orleans and so having no money to ship a car back I sold my XK150S (..easy project) for $6k. That was only 20 years ago, now see how the prices have moved on.! I'd really love another Jag 150 (my all time favourite car), but I know that I'll be never be able to afford one now. The TR4 is the second most enjoyable car I owned, and one of those ought to be still affordable ..if I buy a project and do the work myself.

So that's me. Thanks for letting me play in your yard. I hope to have fun, to learn a bit, and perhaps also I'll be able to help others with a few answers too. After-all the British Cars now thought to be 'classic' were just ordinary cars when I grew up.

My best regards to you all and to the administrators / moderators.:encouragement:

Bfg
(Big friendly giant because I'm 6'5" tall)
 

DavidApp

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
Hello BFG

Welcome to the forum.
The TR3A must have been fun at 6'5" with the top of your head being in the slipstream.

The Pub is an area where almost anything comes up for discussion.

David
 

Basil

Administrator
Staff member
Boss
Online
Welcome to BCF, BFG! We do actually have a British Motorcycle forum here (although truth be told it's not super active). Would love to see pictures of your bikes!

Basil
 
OP
B

Bfg

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
Thanks for the welcome chaps


Here's one, she called 'Nudge' ..and until recently was my daily ride.

I'll now let y'all speculate and tell me about what make and model, what sort of year, the really clever design features, etc., :cool:

Bfg
 

Attachments

  • P1300721s.jpg
    P1300721s.jpg
    155.7 KB · Views: 24
OP
B

Bfg

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
Sorry I lost the link to this website, But now I've found it I'll be back, perhaps tomorrow as it's rather late now, with some more piccies of the bikes.

^ yes it's sorta BSA ..as the BSA group bought Sunbeam, among other companies, during the war. It's a Sunbeam S8 and yes it has a shaft drive too. It's an in-line twin-cylinder 500cc short-stroke OHC. The bike photographed is from 1953.

Designed in a war-time satellite factory in Redditch, the post-war Sunbeams were introduced in 1946 as the flagship motorcycle brand to the BSA group ..who also owned Daimler cars and Lanchester. The story goes.. a group of investors bought the old and failing Sunbeam business back in the 1930's ..because they wanted the secret of their exceedingly high quality paint finishes. They went on to become ICI ..who subsequently sort-of did OK for themselves. BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) in turn bought the company because the wanted production capacity during the war ..and because they were the world's biggest manufacture of bicycles (this was long before the Chinese had their own industrial revolution) but they wanted a top brand name ..to compete with Raleigh bicycles.

Re. the motorcycles.. On my own Sunbeam website, I share a speculation that BSA's chairman - Sir Bernard Docker, who had built for he and his glamorous missus a number of 'Docker Daimler' convertibles, was keen to provide Royal households and embassies (around the world) not only with sublime Daimler limousines but also with the escort bikes used in Royal processions. The value to marketing would of course resonate through their flagship Sunbeam motorcycles to their very same motorcycle dealers selling BSA's.

So this bike's predecessor - the 1946 Sunbeam S7 (..designed by Earling Poope) was to be both magnificently elegant and exceptionally smooth n' quiet. The shaft drive for example used a solid bronze worm-drive rather than a 90-degree bevel box, because worm-drive was very much smoother and silent. These bikes were wet sump with only internal oil-ways ..and overall had a very clean look (not at all typical of 1940's motorcycles !). Being in-line with its 'unit' gearbox and shaft drive, meant there was no primary chain-case clatter (or leaks) nor even a final drive chain. It has a dry clutch ..and the bell-housing, like the rest of the engine, gearbox and driveshaft casings was cast in aluminium. Each are quite chunky in thickness I might add ..because these also serve as very effective heat sinks.

Air-cooled in-line motorcycle engines had been tried, but all suffered from overheating of the rear cylinder. But this design had oil cascading down inside its timing-chain chimney (situated across the back of the engine) and then the aluminium was excellent at conducting heat away to cooler places - Easy ! ..but unnoticed by onlookers, even by those within the industry. The design also featured an equally clever but brilliantly simple design of rubber mountings for the engine / gearbox assembly, where its geometry minimised torque reaction through the frame / the bike's balance. BMW never cottoned on to that either ! And then also included a friction damper to curb amplification of vibration (through the rubber). Oh if only Norton had looked at this.! Aside from that it had a bearing-less dynamo and coil with distributor ignition, when other marques were still trying to get a magneto to work effectively.

These bikes had a duplex frame (again when most others used a single down-tube which twisted alarmingly) and plunger rear suspension (when most motorcycles still had rigid rear ends or else short-travel sprung hubs). I could go on and on enthusing about the unsung brilliance of Poopes design-engineering but.. this is a British Car forum. So for those who have nothing better to do and are interested in engineering-design and marketing, as much motorcycles, then < here > is a link to my little known website.

Happy Easter :cool:
 
OP
B

Bfg

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
.
This is another one of my bikes 'Hovis' ..a 1955 Sunbeam S8 - A very English Gentleman's sporting motorcycle. I've just recommissioned her, after being off the road and in dry storage since April 1994. I did rebuild the engine some 2000 miles ago, but borrowed that and used it in 'Nudge' ..which was my daily commuter to work. Recently I've
done quite a few other little jobs and she now rides well and looks great (albeit from two or three paces away).

But sadly
Hovis is now for sale to help raise funds for my next British Car project.
P1310158s.jpg

P1310162s.jpg

P1310163s.jpg

P1310159s.jpg

P1070327as.jpg
 

JPSmit

Moderator
Staff member
Silver
Country flag
Offline
amazing bike! and stunningly clean engine - how did you manage that? (the engine)
 
OP
B

Bfg

Freshman Member
Country flag
Offline
.
^ Thanks, the engine / gearbox castings were bead blasted inside and out.

I've tried chemical / acid cleaners on the aluminium but they leave a dull darker grey finish. The bead or shell blasting also peens the surface to close the tiniest of casting pinholes, which help keep the engine clean thereafter.

I then cheat a little because I spray a light coat of high-temp spray-paint onto the castings (just after they have been blasted, when they are clean) and immediately (while the paint is wet) wipe most of it again ..to seal again those pores - which again helps keep the engine clean in daily use. This engine was rebuilt several years ago and used in my daily commuter so is very rarely cleaned. Btw. wiping most of the spray paint off again avoids the engine looking rather 'plastic' ..which imo lacquered engines tend towards.

I don't like rust inside an engine either (there always being atmospheric humidity inside an engine, plus acidic combustion gasses), so high-temp petrol-proof spray paint is used to protect bare steel of the engine's end cover plate and clutch drive plates. The lightened flywheel was clear lacquered. I also remove casting and forging flash so as to minimise stress focal points, and this inevitably results in a degree of polishing.

P1070306s.jpg

P1070315s.jpg

P1070265s.jpg

Of course redressing all gasket faces before reassembly, and using new gaskets (sometimes doubling up on them for additional thickness) is necessary to prevent oil leaks. I do assemble using a torque wrench, even for things like the sump bolts, but things do move due to heat expansion and vibration. I hardly ever show my bikes or old cars so I just do this for myself. But bright, clean and neatness seem to inspire my doing a careful job with tolerances and assembly, so it's not just pretty - it has a positive psychological advantage too. And if subsequently an oil seep should occur - then I can of course see that immediately, which is a good indicator that a fastening has worked loose or else a gasket has settled (with compression and heat cycles). Remedial action can then be taken, to prevent the castings from distortion (due to uneven tightness of fastenings).

Bfg
 

JPSmit

Moderator
Staff member
Silver
Country flag
Offline
thanks for this! I wondered about the bead blasting - the paint and wiping off is a brilliant idea - thanks!

keep the pics coming please. cheers
 
Top