TALES FROM THE SHED
My plan for this month’s Shedisode had been to confront your disbelieving gaze with endless shots of the Sunbeam and me, its endlessly delighted rider, drifting down the sunny winter lanes of North Cornwall. Without a care in the world – apart from possibly potential frostbite. However. The answers to my Sunbeam struggles have so far failed to materialise, so I shall instead tell you again how great is our T25SS, possibly the greatest Triumph ever made.
It’s great.
Are you convinced? Thought not. Last month I left you as I returned from a sparky spin around the lanes aboard this very machine, sparks restored and sparking in pretty much the right place, judging by the whizz that the little bike has. And that’s true: it’s certainly decently rapid, especially so for a 250cc ohv design based on a 150cc design dating from the 1950s. What it’s not is comfortably quick. The all-alloy engine rattles fit to bust – as well it might at some point, who can tell?
But that excitement lies in the future. After reading scary warnings about the quaint in-the-frame oiling system, which endlessly suggested that if the exhaust smokes and there is little sign of oil returning to the tank, then maybe the anti-siphon valve (anti-sump valve to you and me) is stuck, depriving all those rattling and thrashing bits of hot metal of the lubricant necessary to prevent them joining together in a demonstration of big bang theory.
Back, then, into The Shed, after a chilly blast to have a chat with my neighbour, Bernard, A
