Three Suns on a cloudy day...

My three Worksop built Sun bikes from 1962, '65 and '68. The green Snipe Plus is very original, save for tyres, tape etc, the Chris Barber '10' (a recent rebuild) has been kept as original as possible, finally the flam orange Snipe Prestige was rebuilt from a frame and forks only, mostly using parts from a Corsa. It originally had 10-speed Beneux gearing. Im rather fond of the (Carlton) Worksop built machines and will look for a Birmingham built Sun, maybe in the future. These are bright and colourful machines and in my view every bit as good as the Carlton stablemates. It's a shame the marque was allowed to go to the dogs in the end.

Lovely bikes, and as you say, colourful. Lucky chappy...

A cacophony of colourful shining Suns!

Each and every one a real beauty. You present them in a really nice way Mike.
You're really making me think about these machines.

Jamie

Admirable.

Fantastic, its always a pleasure and inspirational to follow your threads, please keep them coming

Thanks for the comments...

Some other details...

That red, green and white Prestige Snipe has got to be my favourite
Looks about my size too, so maybe I should start looking out for one.

Jamie

I like the Chris Barber my year 68. I have also been thinking about these older bikes as they usually don't cost the earth to buy unlike some. Just wondering what they are like cost wise for restoring and finding spares are they harder to come by any tips Mike.

Clive

Re:

I was offered one a few weeks back for £10.

Tatty rims, reasonable paint, but way too big for me. Nowhere for it to live so I declined.

I thought about buying it and putting it on here, however, if no one wanted it, I'd be stuck with it and every tenner counts.

kingbling":dc2nq6n5 said:

I like the Chris Barber my year 68. I have also been thinking about these older bikes as they usually don't cost the earth to buy unlike some. Just wondering what they are like cost wise for restoring and finding spares are they harder to come by any tips Mike.

Clive

Click to expand...

Clive...

retro parts are getting more expensive, everyone is jumping on the retro bandwagon. That said, bargains can be found. The Chris Barber 10 cost me £51 - cheap as no postage was offered, this put buyers off. A mate in Manchester picked it up for me and shipped down to Devon. Total spend on the bike was about £40-50 for bits. The most I've spent on a total retro build is about the thick end of a grand for my Flyer, as the parts were top end and sellers wanted premium prices. In general the bikes I like, ie Carlton and Sun are pretty easy to find parts for, as most of it is standard English stuff used by Raleigh. I've found some 27" wheels are harder to find, esp older types, also 27" tyres - ie Michelin World Tours. That said new parts can be retro-fitted if you so desire. Some components from older suppliers can be scarce such as period chainwheels, BBs and brakes, but it all depends on how period correct you want your builds. In general there seems to be a thriving parts market out there, some of it expensive, some not so. It takes some shopping around. I hang onto lots of old parts and re-use a lot form other builds, always scan Ebay for bits, looking for value. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and go for that special bit! The Chris Barber 10 was a great bargain...