Is a Sunbeam S8 capable of cruising at 57mph?

[Rex]

If that was the case then most/all old bikes would be going for "not much money" then, but doesn't every old bike rider tailor their speeds to suit the bike and conditions?
If you really wanted to mix it with those trucks you'd just buy a new Honda.

[mini-me]

Mark  perhaps you  live outside the UK?; the number of foreign HGVs  on our roads is unbelievable, especially on motorways and A class roads,  you have only to see the reports of fatalties caused by pizza eating video watching  east europeans in HGVs to see that.

While the Sunbeam S8/7 are quite a nice bikes the OP is looking to die; He wants one mile an hour advantage over a 56mph 40 ton lorry?
Can you imagine sitting on a bike  front of one like that?
Some slight mechanical failure and he's squashed toast. All because his ego wants to overtake or cruise at his imagined speed on an over crowded motorway.

frankly questions of the original kind piss me off as they do no favours to all sensible  motorcyclists.



"I've ridden a G3LS for 10,000 miles over 10 years."  =1000 miles a year @52 weeks a year, that 20 miles a week, or omitting 6 months winter, 40 miles a week.

I ride as much as that  just to get my shopping at weekends on a piaggio scooter.

[rgsjohn]

Way back in 1962 when I was an impoverished student I owned an S8. When I bought it, it was attached to a sidecar. Obviously that was very quickly removed and I rode it solo still with side car gearing because, I had no idea about how to convert it. Anyway why would I want to bother with that? It still functioned perfectly well was my logic. The S8 was my every day all weather transport for 2 years, and because I did not know any better it never got any maintainence. If the oil level got low it was topped up (Shell Tellus tractor oil) for some strange long forgotten reason. Due to the side car gearing, initially at least, it excelled on the traffic light grand prix well enough to impress me compared to the C11 that I had previously owned. It was a fate suffered by so many old bikes back then because they were both plentiful and cheap. In this case £15. Can't say fairer than that can you? Well, in spite of all that it proved to be utterly reliable, and only ever once let me down. The dynamo failed. I have no idea why, it might have been worn out brushes, it might have been totally shot, I really have no idea. Anyway the local bike shop fixed it and I was on the road again. I do remember once nearly loosing it due to the back end breaking away. That was at Manor House on the old wooden tram blocks that were still in place in the sixties. I was turning right into Seven Sisters Road from Green Lanes in the pouring rain. The surface was extremely slippery as I very nearly found out the hard way. Eventually the Sunbeam was sold when I was able to afford a BMC Minivan (I could not afford to insure and tax both of them). I have no idea what happened to it after that. I have very fond memories of that bike, I did a lot of miles on it. Most weekends I traveled from London to Huntingdon and I certainly used to press on a bit. Later on I bought a Douglas MK V a lovely little bike, but that is another story.

[mini-me]

Experiences shared by most of us that rode old bikes when they were just old bikes, and  bikes were kings of the roads  even the old 350 single could out run a Ford pop.

No 70mph HGVs

[33d6]

The S7 & S8 always suffered a severe lack of street cred.A distant relative of mine bought one new from the first batch imported into my home state of Victoria. 1947-48 or thereabouts. He is long gone but the bike remains with his immediate family. They're convinced they have an exotic collectors piece worth a fortune and the main squabble is about who gets the money. My, is this bike ugly. The very first of them had a 'clean' handlebar and rather odd forks with no hydraulic damping. Not an elegant sight. Nevertheless he did a lot of touring on it and it never let him down. He loved it.

During my apprenticeship I also worked with an old boy who rode one down down from Darwin to Victoria in the mid -50s and had the newspaper clipping collected along the way to prove it. That is some 3500 miles. It did it quite easily. But given the state of the roads back then he definitely didn't cruise at 57 mph.

 After half a century of development and tweaking by Stewart Engineering the beasts should be ultra reliable by now but they're still ugly and still have no street cred even though owners seem to love them and keep them forever.

Just one of those things I suppose.

[mini-me]

I've been browsing through some 1949 bike mags and the small ads for 1949 show in iteresting amount of nearly new S8 for sale.

I wonder why?

[Jonny The Goat]

33d6 Ugly ? The S7 is one of the most stunning British bikes built and its not just owners who think this is the majority of anyone who sees one be they a bike rider or not. Yes I am biased as I own one and out of all my bikes it is the one I will always keep. Yes you can maintain 60+ quite easy for long periods, I have traveled to london and back from Frome a few times on M4 and M3 at 70 and a bit more with no problems and also from my home to the Lake district 2 up again with some motorway driving. I would agree with mini me in that motorway driving is really not safe and will plan my next trips on any of my bikes to avoid motorways if possible but should I end up on one then I have no fears about not keeping up with the traffic. A S8 if properly maintained will be as fast and maybe even a better riding experience than my S7 but sadly it does not have quite the look and style of a S7 so I will not buy one myself but if you want one just maintain it and enjoy it. 

[kerabo]

I have one and they will touch that sort of speed in fact the road test is high 70s I think.

But

They are not a brilliant engine. Get hot if used hard and then blow by and make crankcase pressure and leak oil.
Some seem better than others. Sweet little thing if used carefully.

45 to 50 is a better cruising speed.

The rear drives were weak but I think they detuned the engine to take the load off it.
So if kept full of oil should be ok.