Sun Man 51
Dirt Disciple
Hello everybody.. I'm going to use this post as my introduction to the forum.. so I hope that's ok.. 
Right, my biking story starts like this. Back in March 2021, I was talking with a neighbour, and we got to reminiscing about our first decent push bikes. Both of us are within spitting distance age wise, 70, and were brought up in the respective counties of Berkshire and Surrey. Neither of us came from what you could call wealthy families, so all previous bikes were the usual rag tag of bits and pieces put together to form a rideable bike.
So, as I said we were discussing our first decent bikes, and it turned out that.. that bike was a Sun Snipe Plus. My neighbours was Zircon Blue and mine was Flamboyant Bronze Green. I may be wrong on the proper names for those colours, so please correct me if I am. The chat was an enjoyable one, and I obviously felt inspired, and nostalgic enough to do some research online later that evening, and here the story really begins.
I have to admit at this juncture that I'd completely forgot the model name of my bike until my neighbour named his bike as a Sun Snipe Plus. So armed with the model name I typed it into a search engine and up came Spokesmann's incredible Sun. I was absolutely taken aback, stunned. There was my bike staring me in the face. Not the same bike obviously, but you get the impact. I was immediately taken back to a passage in time. A sunny Saturday morning in 1965, and a visit to the bike shop with my Dad, in Park Street, Camberley, Surrey. I was 13 years old, and so excited. I can still remember the smell in the shop, and the man checking my brand new Sun over. A deposit was paid, and my Dad signed the paperwork as a guarantor, as I was going to pay the bike off monthly with my paper round money.
The feeling of walking out of the shop with my new bike, across the pavement and onto the road, was mind blowing as a young lad. I couldn't wait to sit on that Brooks saddle and ride away. Dad and I rode quite a few miles that day, we took all the quiet back roads. In the sunshine with my new bike, I thought I was in heaven. Such a precious memory looking back.
So.. what happened after my search online ? Well, I've always been one for a project, so the idea started to gel that maybe I could find a bike to 'do up' renovate. It didn't take long, and to my surprise I found a Snipe Plus on Gumtree near Totnes in Devon. A phone call was made and a time to go and see the bike was arranged. It turned out the owner had bought the bike new (he was 15) in February 1968 from a bike shop called Fieldings, Prince of Wales Road, Norwich. Such a lovely man. He was a bit choked to see the bike go, and I was glad to spend some time chatting with him before I drove away. Promises were made that I'd keep in touch, and send him some photos if I renovated it. I kept that promise, and sent him via email the photo's of his old Sun steed. He was, in his own words "chuffed to bits" and said he would frame the main photo below.
Obviously the above photo is the finished article but I intend to do a before and after of the whole project, with lots of details, as I took plenty of photos while it was ongoing. Watch this space...
Ok.. so here goes, some info on the restoration of my newly acquired Worksop Sun. I'll start by saying this. Although my project bike wasn't in what one could call a terribly dire state, it was very tired, neglected, and needed a major overhaul to bring it back to what I would call a bike to be proud of. One of the first decisions I had to make was whether or not to repaint. I mulled this over for several days, but in the end I decided I just couldn't live with the frame in the state it was in. There was considerable rust and very deep pitting, and even when lightly rubbing the original paintwork it was turning to dust. The photo's below actually make the bike look a lot better than it actually was, and I know some will say, what about the patina. As I said above, I did consider this carefully, but in the end I decided that as the bike had a new owner, and new beginnings, that after a repaint and refurbishment it would acquire new patina too as the miles and years passed.
Right, my biking story starts like this. Back in March 2021, I was talking with a neighbour, and we got to reminiscing about our first decent push bikes. Both of us are within spitting distance age wise, 70, and were brought up in the respective counties of Berkshire and Surrey. Neither of us came from what you could call wealthy families, so all previous bikes were the usual rag tag of bits and pieces put together to form a rideable bike.
So, as I said we were discussing our first decent bikes, and it turned out that.. that bike was a Sun Snipe Plus. My neighbours was Zircon Blue and mine was Flamboyant Bronze Green. I may be wrong on the proper names for those colours, so please correct me if I am. The chat was an enjoyable one, and I obviously felt inspired, and nostalgic enough to do some research online later that evening, and here the story really begins.
I have to admit at this juncture that I'd completely forgot the model name of my bike until my neighbour named his bike as a Sun Snipe Plus. So armed with the model name I typed it into a search engine and up came Spokesmann's incredible Sun. I was absolutely taken aback, stunned. There was my bike staring me in the face. Not the same bike obviously, but you get the impact. I was immediately taken back to a passage in time. A sunny Saturday morning in 1965, and a visit to the bike shop with my Dad, in Park Street, Camberley, Surrey. I was 13 years old, and so excited. I can still remember the smell in the shop, and the man checking my brand new Sun over. A deposit was paid, and my Dad signed the paperwork as a guarantor, as I was going to pay the bike off monthly with my paper round money.
The feeling of walking out of the shop with my new bike, across the pavement and onto the road, was mind blowing as a young lad. I couldn't wait to sit on that Brooks saddle and ride away. Dad and I rode quite a few miles that day, we took all the quiet back roads. In the sunshine with my new bike, I thought I was in heaven. Such a precious memory looking back.
So.. what happened after my search online ? Well, I've always been one for a project, so the idea started to gel that maybe I could find a bike to 'do up' renovate. It didn't take long, and to my surprise I found a Snipe Plus on Gumtree near Totnes in Devon. A phone call was made and a time to go and see the bike was arranged. It turned out the owner had bought the bike new (he was 15) in February 1968 from a bike shop called Fieldings, Prince of Wales Road, Norwich. Such a lovely man. He was a bit choked to see the bike go, and I was glad to spend some time chatting with him before I drove away. Promises were made that I'd keep in touch, and send him some photos if I renovated it. I kept that promise, and sent him via email the photo's of his old Sun steed. He was, in his own words "chuffed to bits" and said he would frame the main photo below.
Obviously the above photo is the finished article but I intend to do a before and after of the whole project, with lots of details, as I took plenty of photos while it was ongoing. Watch this space...
Ok.. so here goes, some info on the restoration of my newly acquired Worksop Sun. I'll start by saying this. Although my project bike wasn't in what one could call a terribly dire state, it was very tired, neglected, and needed a major overhaul to bring it back to what I would call a bike to be proud of. One of the first decisions I had to make was whether or not to repaint. I mulled this over for several days, but in the end I decided I just couldn't live with the frame in the state it was in. There was considerable rust and very deep pitting, and even when lightly rubbing the original paintwork it was turning to dust. The photo's below actually make the bike look a lot better than it actually was, and I know some will say, what about the patina. As I said above, I did consider this carefully, but in the end I decided that as the bike had a new owner, and new beginnings, that after a repaint and refurbishment it would acquire new patina too as the miles and years passed.
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