The Sunbeam Motorcycle

THE SUNBEAM MOTORCYCLE

BOOK REVIEW

by Robert Cordon Champ Haynes Publishing Co. 861 Lawrence Drive Newbury Park, Calif 91320 Motorsports 6115 Gravois St. Louis, Mo. 63116

Here we have a nice black and gold book about an even nicer black and gold motorcycle that is something of a cult in England, at least the models built before BSA got its commercial little hands on the name. Would you believe a gutless twin-cylinder shaftie that stripped its ring and pinion? Would you believe having to split the cases on a two-stroke in order to set the points? There are lots of fascinating things to believe, most of them BBSA, and just about all are in this book. Don’t read it if your intellectual equipment is strained by MX Cat as Mr. Champ goes well into prewar (probably pre-Boer War) England in order to find out the workings of a better than average English motorcycle factory, in the process shedding much light on why the Poms make their bikes like they do. An ohc Single with splash lubrication? It has been tried.

Actually if you are into bikes of that period or any English bike at all this book on the The Sunbeam is worth the money. Mr. Champ fleshes out the characters such as they are and delineates all the models, in addition providing a tidy appendix at the back with motor and frame numbers, bores, strokes, handy hints about identification and other information dear to the enthusiast or restorer. I used it in my Salon about a 1924 Model 8 which Girdler will probably never print as the bike is too old for him; after all I was two when it came out! A quality book.

Henry N. Manney III