# Information About These Brakes



## rootesgroup (Dec 26, 2021)

I have a 1963 Sunbeam bicycle (it has a 1963 SA AW rear hub, in any case) and it has brakes that I have only seen in one other article for a 1947 Sunbeam LS-3.  The front brakes...




I have looked at pictures of so many vintage bikes and these specific brakes are not found on any of them.  As my Sunbeam was built in the Raleigh [owned] years, they must be Raleigh brakes but they also look like they might be Resilion or Resilion based.  Thankfully, the front and rear brakes on my bike are complete so I don't need parts.  

I am just wondering about these brakes.  Are they Resilion?  What years were they used?  I suspect this query is a long shot but I thought I would give it a try.  thank you for your time and attention.


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## Oilit (Dec 26, 2021)

I'm going to guess that your bike is earlier. By 1963 the T.I. owned brands were pretty well standardized, and the chrome fork crown on yours doesn't look like anything they were using. Can we get a picture of the whole bike?


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## ccdc.1 (Dec 26, 2021)

The brakes look very much like the BSA-branded brakes on my 1949-50 BSA Streamlight (all original). Best I could learn, these were used for a few years from 1949-1952-ish....until copied by Campagnolo for their Delta brakes in the 1980s  Photo attached.


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## SirMike1983 (Dec 26, 2021)

I agree - that may be the Sunbeam that was on Facebook Market for quite some time. It was for sale, I think, in NJ or PA somewhere (?). It was advertised as 1962, but it appeared to be an earlier bike with the proprietary Sunbeam additions. It could have had a wheel swap, I suppose, if the rear hub date was 1962. But it was an earlier and more collectible bike than a 1962 for sure. Those are a center-pull Sunbeam brake. Parts are hard to find in the US. They're an interesting part and actually quite good when set up and adjusted correctly. 

You should put some pictures of the whole bike up. We don't get very many old-school Sunbeams in the US.


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## rootesgroup (Dec 26, 2021)

Oilit said:


> I'm going to guess that your bike is earlier. By 1963 the T.I. owned brands were pretty well standardized, and the chrome fork crown on yours doesn't look like anything they were using. Can we get a picture of the whole bike?



Why soitenly...


Oilit said:


>



I have just started to clean it up.  The above images are from when I purchased it.


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## rootesgroup (Dec 27, 2021)

SirMike1983 said:


> I agree - that may be the Sunbeam that was on Facebook Market for quite some time. It was for sale, I think, in NJ or PA somewhere (?). It was advertised as 1962, but it appeared to be an earlier bike with the proprietary Sunbeam additions. It could have had a wheel swap, I suppose, if the rear hub date was 1962. But it was an earlier and more collectible bike than a 1962 for sure. Those are a center-pull Sunbeam brake. Parts are hard to find in the US. They're an interesting part and actually quite good when set up and adjusted correctly.
> 
> You should put some pictures of the whole bike up. We don't get very many old-school Sunbeams in the US.



My Sunbeam was on Craigslist in upstate/middle NY.  I have a Sunbeam automobile (1966) so I scan Craigslist locations all over the U.S. for Sunbeam ads just for yuks (anyone else do this kind of thing?).  I came upon the bike and it was about 3.5 hours from my house.  So, I asked the wife if she was in for a road trip and she said yes.  We had a good drive out, bought the bike and were able to do a few other things while out there.

The nice guy that sold me the bike said that he had recently recarpeted his house.  The old rugs were in good condition, so he put them on Craigslist.  Someone replied to his ad and said he did not have the money but had three older bikes to trade and they made the deal.  The guy I dealt with said he thought it would be easier to sell the bikes than the carpet.

I have suspected that the bike was older as I started researching the bike.  I could find no 1960-ish Raleigh type bikes that looked like the Sunbeam and I found that Raleigh ended up with Sunbeam in 1957 (or so).  However, the date on the SA hub was all I had to go with considering the lack of information on this bike.  The bike does have the Sunbeam decals on the front post and the seat post.  My best guess was that Raleigh had a cache of parts from when they bought Sunbeam and the bike may have been made by Raleigh out of the parts cache (and that they may have operated this way until the parts cache was used up?).


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## SirMike1983 (Dec 27, 2021)

That's a good find. I think it's the same bike that was being marketed online on Facebook, Craigslist, etc. There aren't very many pre-1960 Sunbeams that turn up in the US. The wheels would have originally been the same size, so one could swap on post-60 Raleigh wheels and it works fine. I would try to complete the bike as it stands, but if you really want to dig into the project, you could try to retrofit back to the original Sunbeam parts that have been swapped out. You may have to import parts from England to complete the bike if you go that route. It's an excellent project because it's so different from the usual things. If you can work on old automobiles, the bike should not be too difficult. I would recommend such a project to someone with mechanical skills, though not to a beginner because it will take some work to get correct parts and make everything go together.


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## rootesgroup (Dec 27, 2021)

SirMike1983 said:


> That's a good find. I think it's the same bike that was being marketed online on Facebook, Craigslist, etc. There aren't very many pre-1960 Sunbeams that turn up in the US. The wheels would have originally been the same size, so one could swap on post-60 Raleigh wheels and it works fine. I would try to complete the bike as it stands, but if you really want to dig into the project, you could try to retrofit back to the original Sunbeam parts that have been swapped out. You may have to import parts from England to complete the bike if you go that route. It's an excellent project because it's so different from the usual things. If you can work on old automobiles, the bike should not be too difficult. I would recommend such a project to someone with mechanical skills, though not to a beginner because it will take some work to get correct parts and make everything go together.



I really had not followed bicycles much until my inlaws left my wife and I with a couple of 1964 bikes... a Schwinn tank bike (a Fleet model I think) and a J.C. Higgins cruiser.  I took those all apart and re-worked each part before re-assembly.  I took the Schwinn on our local rail trail and thought "this is fun!".

I then found a 1979 Sunbeam (the re-badged Raleigh type) for $10 and made that roadworthy.  I had never known that there were Sunbeam bicycles and since I have an auto I was intrigued.  Then I found the older Sunbeam when looking for Sunbeam auto stuff.

I plan to make the older Sunbeam roadworthy as I found it but, over time, I hope to find the original parts (if I can) and bring the bike back as much as I can.  The biggest challenge that I see in this, other than finding the right parts, is knowing what the right parts are to begin with.  My plans in this regard are to find as many pictures of Sunbeam (and maybe some other brands) bikes of that era that I can and build knowledge about when certain features changed.  For example:

when were head decals no longer used and badges used instead
mudguard mount locations and hardware
decorative sprocket design
shifting parts
and so on.


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## Oilit (Dec 27, 2021)

If you're looking for information on English bikes, look into the Veteran-Cycle Club. There's a membership fee, but their on-line library of old catalogs is the best source I've found.








						Veteran-Cycle Club
					

For Whatever You Ride




					v-cc.org.uk


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## rootesgroup (Dec 27, 2021)

ccdc.1 said:


> The brakes look very much like the BSA-branded brakes on my 1949-50 BSA Streamlight (all original). Best I could learn, these were used for a few years from 1949-1952-ish....until copied by Campagnolo for their Delta brakes in the 1980s  Photo attached.View attachment 1534585



I've been meaning to say what a great looking bike that is.  It does look how much of my Sunbeam looks.  How did you take that photo?  It is so well done and reminds me of the way that they take stock photos for advertising use.


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## rootesgroup (Dec 30, 2021)

Oilit said:


> If you're looking for information on English bikes, look into the Veteran-Cycle Club. There's a membership fee, but their on-line library of old catalogs is the best source I've found.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



_I joined the V-CC.  Thank you for the pointer._


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## ccdc.1 (Dec 30, 2021)

rootesgroup said:


> I've been meaning to say what a great looking bike that is.  It does look how much of my Sunbeam looks.  How did you take that photo?  It is so well done and reminds me of the way that they take stock photos for advertising use.



The photos of the BSA were done by photographer Ken Today in North Carolina at a vintage bike event (BAMF) several years back. Ken is a professional photographer that has an interest in vintage bikes, so he occasionally sets up a mobile studio to photo bikes for a fair fee at these events. You can see the full set of photos on the Flickr album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51061132@N08/albums/72157634986074789


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## rootesgroup (Jan 2, 2022)

ccdc.1 said:


> The photos of the BSA were done by photographer Ken Today in North Carolina at a vintage bike event (BAMF) several years back. Ken is a professional photographer that has an interest in vintage bikes, so he occasionally sets up a mobile studio to photo bikes for a fair fee at these events. You can see the full set of photos on the Flickr album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51061132@N08/albums/72157634986074789



That is rather cool.

Also, you were correct.  My Sunbeam is a postwar BSA build on what is, possibly, a prewar Sunbeam frame.  I am told that this is possible as stock was passed from company to company as company acquisitions/sales were made.  The clue to the frame is that the headset tube does not have pressed in bearing races.   It is most cool, regardless of what it is and I am so pleased to have this Sunbeam.


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