The Bike Page: Project '02

Jim's Bicycle Pages
1930's Sun Manxman Restoration

Bike Page > My Bicycles > 1930's Sun Manxman Restoration

Here's an interesting restoration project that has found its way to me: a British Sun "Manxman" from the 1930's. It orginally belonged to my step-father in-law, who saved up and bought it as a boy. It got him around the Pacific Northwest for many years, before ending up garaged and stored. After I told him I'd be interested in restoring it, he put the bicycle in my care - thanks Herb!

Late 1930's/Early 40's Sun Manxman Restoration

Evaluation and condition: Overall, this bike is in better shape than many that are only a small percentage of its age. It has some caked on garage dust and the saddle is a bit worn, but overall, things seem like they want to work. I have not yet ridden the bicycle.

This bike seems to sit in an interesting place, as it uses a very early derailleur system. It is a three speed, with shifting done by moving the lever mounted on the top tube. It uses a looped cable to shift, with the cable moving the derailleur both directions, rather than using a return spring as current systems do. It does utilize a spring, but that is used to maintain chain tension.

(Update - The derailleur system looks to be an early British Cyclo three-speed. This seems to be confirmed by The Dancing Chain and a recent issue of Bicycle Quarterly (which was Vintage Bicycle Quarterly). The BQ article actually has a step-by-step description of disassembly/reassembly. )

The bar tape is certainly not stock, and I'm not sure about the grips. At some point, an identifier was engraved into the seat tube. The horn is even British made. According to Herb, it was purchased in the Seattle area in 1941.

Goals of this restoration:
Strip, clean and make into a rideable bicycle. Replace bar tape with something reasonably contemporary to the model. Figure out what would have been mounted to the hardware near the front axle.

Changes made to this bike:
Step 1 (7/04) The Saddle -
As you can see below, the saddle is in pretty poor condition overall. It was very dried out and upon removal, it was obvious that three of the back rivets had pulled through or simply given up. I took it down to my local shoe repair spot (which has probably been in business since the time that this bike was made) and had them re-rivet the back end. I had done a little bit of restoration upon the leather, and they buffed things out a bit more.







RestoLog: 08/04 - Finally began pulling bits off to clean. Brooks saddle got worked on as described above. Now the issue is that the tension bolt has long been rounded, and the Brooks spanner will not work on it. Popular consensus is that it is a Whitworth bolt. It differs from the contemporary replacement parts I found on WallBike in that the tension bolt is tall with flattened sides and has a oval (racetrack oval) shape on the nose (standard Brooks spanner in photo for sizing comparison): 12/04 - At times like this, I always think of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" when the narrator is haplessly wandering the jungle muttering "rivets..rivets". Nevertheless, the saddle popped back together with an ease which belied the journey. Ended up buying another leather saddle that looked like it had the same hardware. It didn't, and after proofing up the leather and tensioning the nose, it proved to be the least comfortable saddle I've ever rested upon (except perhaps for the high-center-skinny-as-a-rail Sekai saddle I once tried). Went down to the Veloswap in SF and traded it for a really nasty looking Ideale which had similar hardware. This worked. Last night, I dremeled the sharp edges on the nose of the bolt and put it in place. It tensioned up well, though I'll probably end up putting a couple more turns into it as it settles into place. Brooks B32 Narrow Saddle - check! For some reason, this seems to have been a sticking point - I didn't really want to pull other parts off of the bike until this was fixed. Hopefully, I'll begin to gain some momentum on this (and not get distracted by projects like the Dawes). 7/06 - Ok, there've been some other projects and a few distractions. Still, it's frighteningly hard to realize that the freakin' seat work was two years ago... Luckily, I get periodic emails from folks who have found this page and remind me to get this projects underway. Lesse if I can't regain some momentum here.
	Much to my surprise, there is a page on the Classic Rendevous Site which has some contemporary advertisements from Sun including the Manxman model. Here's a link to the page:
	UPDATE 7/06 - A fan of the Cyclofiend.com website has been kind enough to forward another example of a Sun Manxman, which appears here. Definitely a later model, having added both another cog on the rear and a new-fangled front derailleur-ing changer.