An inspiration to us all
When I visited Archie towards the back end of 2017, at the home he shares with wife Joyce, he was playing with a side-valve Sunbeam Lion, registered in 1938 and one of the last Marston (so just pre-AMC takeover) Sunbeams.
The Beam is now fitted with a Model 9 (the 500cc overhead valve model) cam; on a Lion, the inlet valve normally opens at top dead centre (TDC), but now is opening 15° before TDC. Archie explains all this with a mischievous glint in his eye, revelling in the prospect of what might be mistaken as an ‘old plodder’ going a bit better than might be expected.
Archie was also in the process of making fork links; he explained, they were “nearly right” but will try until they are right. He also reckoned this was one of the last Marston Sunbeams ever built – and Archie will forever be associated with Marston Sunbeams.
But he didn’t begin Beaming. He started with an aged 172cc Super Sports Francis-Barnett, a machine worn out in every way, which featured a bolt-up ‘built like a bridge’ frame. “I got a back wheel puncture and the whole thing looked like a blown up umbrella,” he chuckles.
