In the 1990s there was a TV programme which will be familiar to most British readers, a sketch show called Harry Enfield and Chums. In it there was a couple of recurring characters, Lee (Enfield) and Lance (sidekick Paul Whitehouse), a couple of East End of London wideboys who, among other things, were at one point running a garage. In one sketch they were talking about a bloke from the pub, trying to describe someone to the other. It went something like:
Lance: “Fat bloke”
Lee: “Nice bloke”
Lance: “Yeah, nice and fat”
For some reason, that sketch was in my head as I was riding this little Sunbeam, adjusted thus:
Voice one: “Nice bike”
Voice two: “Slow bike”
Voice one: “Yeah, nice and slow”
It sort of sums up the Sunbeam, in that it is both ‘nice’ and ‘slow,’ its supposed fault being flipped – like the fat bloke sketch – into an attribute. We’ll talk more of the baby Beam’s attributes later on.
Over the years, I have, I’ll admit, been prone to getting slightly weird motorcycle obsessions, which, invariably, leads to me owning an example of such, working through my period of infatuation and then, well, moving it and the obsession on. For whatever reason, I’ve never really been able to find one thing and just stick to it, having always liked the idea of trying something and then experiencing something different. Thing
