Sunbeam Model 9

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Long famed for making ‘bikes for gentlemen’, Sunbeam had started to experiment with overhead valves on their racing machines in the early 1920s and these duly appeared on production machines in 1924 on the new Model 9 and its tuned racing equivalent, the Model 90, which was capable of 90mph – hence the name.

The OHV design continued to be put into what was basically the same frame as its side valve stable mates, Sunbeam somehow missing the boat when the rest of the industry switched to saddle tank design, persisting with the old fashioned flat tank well into 1928. Changes continued to the design and oiling system in the following years, along with the adoption of the 4-speed gearbox with its unusual cross-over design driving the rear wheel from the opposite end of the gearbox to the primary drive.

Despite being a beautifully finished sporting machine in the finest Sunbeam tradition, spiralling costs and hard times brought John Marston’s Wolverhampton factory to its knees and the Sunbeam marque was sold to the ambitious AMC concern in 1937 who continued to make more conventional machines under the Sunbeam brand for a few more years.

First registered in September 1935, this beautiful Model 9 is one of the last true Sunbeams before the factory was taken over. A top-of-the-range model in 1935 and clearly well-restored at some point in the not-too-distant past, it still displays all the fine engineering and beautiful deep gloss finish that the Marston era machines were famed for.

Acquired for the Stondon Museum collection in 1997, it has a modern V5C and also an old RF60 buff cardboard logbook issued in 1946 as a continuation.