Sun Hornet.

[darloman]

Hi All  My brother recently purchased a 98cc Sun Hornet in blue. Now having read the history of the manufacture of the bike it states that it was released for the 1955 season in blue with the larger fuel tank. All very well but how come I keep finding Hornets on the internet from earlier years and in red and maroon and black and with two different frames. Can someone put me out of my misery. Will try and put a photo of the bike on here and maybe you can tell me if the bike is right or wrong. Just out of interest the frame number is XMC 241 and the engine number is 604B*****.

[R]

Bonhams show this 1957, although a bit of a lash-up obviously ......

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17358/lot/263/

Your brothers looks like a sweet example, be interested to see further comments.

[33d6]

Well, according to my info XMC is a 1957 frame prefix, and the 604B prefix on the engine number is for a 1958 4F. As Sun motorcycle production ceased in 1959 it could be that your brothers bike is one of those final assemblies made up from what was still in stores as things were winding down.
Do you have the date of first registration?
I'm not quite clear on what you think is wrong. Sun made a 98cc Villiers powered bike from 1949 to 1958. Initially it had no model name and then they started to call it the Hornet in 1955.  It was slowly developed over the years with changes to the front forks and the tank, the colour and later variations of the F series engine. Technically anything pre 55 isn't a Hornet even though it's an earlier edition of the same bike. That doesn't stop owners calling an earlier bike a Hornet even though the Sun factory would say it isn't.
Your brothers bike seems to fit into all this quite well.

[nehaali]

very nice post,i really appreciate this