Vintage Thing No.64.1 - Sunbeam Model 90

You've seen this side before

Earlier this year I took the opportunity at Wiscombe Park to study the other side of this Sunbeam Model 90, which I spotted at last year's meet propped up against some Portaloos.

But this was not the view I was expecting.

According to my information a Model 90 should have a head like this.

I really like the "architecture" of a single cylinder motorcycle engine

But what was revealed was this.

This Sunbeam looks fast despite the fairly high bars for hauling the bike round the bends but looks like it'll stop thanks to the nice big front brake.

I know I should have spotted that it was a single port head even when looking at it in the rain from the drive side. I can only assume that this bike is powered by the later version of this engine, which would make it a Model 95.

The trouble is, Sunbeam motorcycles of this era are rather obscure. Their best years were the vintage ones and post war everyone remembers them as a strangely mid-Atlantic misconception (although not without their own charms). In between were some post vintage machines that make me wonder if I should try riding something with archaic front suspension (girder forks) and a solid tail before discounting them. I find it hard to believe that a bike that looks this good can have much in the way of vices.


Sunbeams were always described as "gentleman's machines" but this bike has an air of the hooligan about it, albeit a very high quality hooligan. Black and gold really suit old motorcycles and, much as I like Velocettes, the paintwork on this Sunbeam is so superb it looks like its still wet and so deep you could dive into it and enter a parallel universe - not quite Alice through the looking glass, more Robert through the quality enamelling.

Lots of high pressure noses are in evidence on this engine. From new it would have had "armoured" or coil wound pipes

Are there any marque experts out there who can enlighten me as to what this machine really is?