A Sunbeam B25 saga
In the late 1960s, my father Norm Chipperfield was advertising in the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald regularly, looking for late 1930s MSS Velocettes like he had as a seventeen year old. He received a call from a guy not too far around the corner in Cecil Street Caringbah who had a MOV Velo and a Sunbeam under the house and as they did back then, he was going to take them to the tip. The guy didn’t want anything for them so dad gave him $2.00 to cover his phone call. Dad guided me on how to get the Sunbeam running. I was 12 years old at the time, it ran nicely and was quite docile to ride, it had mid-1950s Ariel telescopic forks and 21’’ front wheel, it was very reliable and kept me entertained for a few years. While still looking for MSS Velo parts we ended up at one of Harry Beanham’s properties at North Sydney. He turned up on a V-twin Zenith or an ABC from memory and parked it near his wife’s Rolls Royce.
Dad found the Velo parts he needed and also found the remains of a Sunbeam that was needed to make a complete bike from the two. Harry (the owner and proprietor of Allparts in Sydney) reluctantly parted with the Sunbeam. When we were at Harry’s I asked what was in the wooden army boxes that were stacked up outside along a sandstone embankment; they were new WLA Harleys, he had so much good stuff. So, sometime around the late ‘70s or early ‘80s Jack Forrest let his good friend Noel Napier (Beehag and Sheppard Auto Electrical Caringbah) know about the Sunbeams. Noel bought the bikes and did a great restoration, then when finished he bought it around to show my father. The last I heard I believe he sold it to someone in Japan. ■
From Brett Chipperfield