SUMMER’S HERE AND THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR going motorcycle touring. But what to take? Something shiny and new, covered in panniers and fairings? A large-capacity classic? Well, how about covering 8000 miles and doing it on a 1920s flat tanker with a Soviet-era Czech Army surplus bag to carry your kit?
There’s a reason for this apparent madness. Twenty-three-year-old Harry Bott is taking on one hell of a challenge, but he’s doing it all for the worthiest of causes – raising money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). And the bike was his great grandfather’s, a 1926 Sunbeam that’s four times as old as Harry is.
Harry is visiting all 238 RNLI stations in the UK and Ireland on his family’s oily relic. The side valve Sunbeam has a top speed of just 45mph, a fuel tank which holds not much more than a gallon of fuel, and runs a total loss lubrication system.
Harry expects his epic coastal journey, plotted with the help of an RNLI tea towel, will
