Visible means of support
Rick uses a bit of ingenuity to make sure his 1928 Sunbeam is a fine, upstanding machine
Here’s something you don’t see everyday – no, not the dog, that’s Peter the English Toy Terrier, though he is a rare breed. What I’m talking about seeing a flat-tank Sunbeam reclining on its sidestand.
From the earliest days up until the adoption of rear suspension, the stand on a motorcycle was fitted close to the rear axle – very early bikes had a platform stand that could pivot 180° around the axle to become a rear carrier when riding.
Rear stands are fine but they’re a bit of a faff when you just want to pull over, and back in their day it was usual to see bikes perched against a kerb on the footrest. Some early American bikes had a ‘jiffy stand’, but they were rare on British bikes pre-war. The popular diamond frame design – essentially a bicycle with the bottom bracket cut off, using the engine as a stressed member – provided no convenient bottom frame rails upon which to bracket them, so the few sidestands that did exist at that time, pivoted from the rear frame just behind the gearbox.
I made up a fitting like that for my ’32 Sunbeam, but the ’28’s exhaust prevents doing the same and I was stumped until I came up with the idea of welding the stand pivot to a curved steel strap that bolts to the engine mountings. Although not megasturdy, it’s secured in three places making it strong enough to support a light bike like the Model 9 and I’m dead pleased with it. Better still, I’d been racking my brain trying to come up with a mounting for my Rudge and I think the same trick will work on that.
‘SIDESTANDS WERE QUITE A RARITY ON PRE-WAR BRITISH BIKES’