Project bike
It looked like a simple recommissioning job on a well treated bike, but the forecast soon changed for this 1929 Model 9
Stubborn Sunbeam
What’s the most common cause of projects failing?” The questioner was former CB editor Hugo Wilson, researching an article for Bike magazine. Leaving aside unrealistic expectations, I suggested it is probably the unexpected. Unpleasant surprises cripple your faith in carrying on; and once you ‘walk away’ it can be difficult to pick up where you left off. Next thing you’re writing out an advert headed ‘unfinished project’.
Of course, this doesn’t happen to me... but it used to. I recall several projects – an Ariel 500 twin, a 1937 Fannybarnett, even a 150cc James chopper… hey, it was a long time ago! – departing in boxes. What changed was spending ten years restoring bikes for a living when giving up isn’t an option – you learn that there’s a way round everything and you have to find it. After turning my pal Raymond Albeson’s heap of Sunbeam bits into two realistic projects last month, I was firedup to recommission his unrestored 1929 Model 9. Last taxed in 1961, it hasn’t run since 1980 – and if that sounds like I should be reading Hugo’s article instead of contributing to it, I should point out it looked like it had been cared for and an old log book showed it had been taxed every year from 1942, by the same owner. OK, maybe that’s not much, but I was partly right. Initially the surprises were all pleasant, but then I found the crankshaft was literally falling apart. Well, we’d just have to get it fixed and fit the engine later. But the gearbox was worn out, too. Still, Sunbeam specialist Chris Odling makes new gear sets. “I’ve got five here,” he told me “But they are all sold; do you want to go on the list for the next batch?” Oh, OK. How about if I concentrate on the rolling chassis; then it’ll just be a case of fitting the engine and gearbox when they’re ready.
But more bad luck followed. The wheel bearings were badly pitted. Cycle-style adjustable cones screw onto the axle with cups pressed into the hub, but on these wheels it was like the cups were built into the hub. Chris Odling told me the secret, but can’t supply replacements. Machining out the hubs to take ball races is the solution, but that would mean stripping out the wheel hub – losing the original, perfectly sound spokes and adding two wheel-builds to the job.
There was stuff everywhere, the bike was in a thousand bits and I couldn’t put any of it back together. I wanted to walk away... but I could hardly give Raymond his bike back in a wheelbarrow.
I phoned the patron saint of Sunbeam owners, Archie Beggs; he’s cleared out most of his spares, but I was desperate. He said that even if he had any bearings they’d be secondhand, but he’d have a look and send me whatever he could find. Two days later a small jiffy bag landed on the doormat. As I tore it open the sun seemed to shine again; inside were exactly the parts I needed to get the wheels back on and the bike rolling.
Maybe projects fail because we give up too easily. Like the man said: ‘perseverance will be rewarded’.
‘THE BIKE WAS IN 1000 BITS AND IT COULDN’T GO BACK TOGETHER’