INCOMING!
SUPER SUNBEAM!
I thoroughly enjoyed Frank’s article about the Sunbeam S7 but was rather amused by his comments on the cruising speed. Let me take you back to the early 1970s when I was an apprentice at the Copenacre Royal Naval Stores Depot just outside of Bath. Riding home, I regularly encountered a diminutive figure hunched over a plunger Bantam with ace bars, riding very quickly. His racing lines through the lanes and his ability to maintain momentum was superb.
It turned out that Mike Curtis also worked at Copenacre and kept hinting darkly that he was working on something very special. One day he turned up on a very tidy S8; that evening he flew past my Matchless G80S, riding with the same panache he had on the Bantam. A few months later I took the sidecar off my BSA A10 and thought I’d be able to keep up with him. The next couple of weeks were an education.
Despite scraping footrests, centrestand and silencers, I could only occasionally keep up and regularly saw over 90mph on my speedo. The stretch between Melksham and Holt was the most challenging, with some fast straights and difficult corners. I soon realised that his unusual lines on some corners better positioned him for the next bend and I can still remember the ‘clang’from my front forks as they topped out going over the railway bridge.
Mike always refused to discuss what he had done to the Sunbeam engine but hinted it could easily top 100mph and despite dire predictions the final drive still seemed OK after three years of thrashing.
Stuart Francis
Great feature on the Sunbeam S7. Top
