classic motorcycle forum

Many 30 something wimmin are all to keen to interpret simple explanation or advice as being told what to do. Invariably it is not the man being patronizing, rather the woman being deliberately over-sensitive using any excuse to take offence in order to denigrate the man. To me, it is a deeply abhorrent trait and is one of many reasons why I simply avoid such folk in these psychologically disturbed times.   

Plenty of tin plated iron pistons ..you can be sure the technolgy works .71 and 92 series pistons are tin plated 007 thick.

My pleasure. It's a great photo - all the better for the bike being covered with happy young men. Do you know who they are?

Leon

Unfortunately I don't know who they are. I suspect the person in the middle is my Grandad's brother, but I only remember him as a man in his 90s, so can't be sure. It is a shame we don't ask more questions when the people who can answer them are still around.

I like a vintage Sunbeam, and although I don't own one I read each issue of "Beaming" (magazine of the Marston Sunbeam Club) after my Sunbeam-owing friend finishes with it.

My reasoning here is:

Sunbeam gave up on the Druid-style side-spring fork on most models in 1931, so the bike is 1930 or earlier.
The carrier is a type that came in (I think) in 1929, which leaves us with 1929-1930, when almost all models had a saddle tank.
High exhaust pipe says OHV, so we're down to 1929-30 Model 8/80 or 9/90.
Side valances on the front guard, standard on Model 8 (350) and Model 9 (500). The sporty Models 80/90 could be ordered to any spec, but almost all would have had sporty blade mudguards.
So we're left with 1929-30 Model 8/9.

Looking again more closely, I can see the front fork damper is on the lower fork spindle. It moved to the top spindle for 1930 models, so I reckon we can say (with some confidence) 1929 Sunbeam Model 8 or Model 9. You'd need a fab photo with no legs to tell those two apart!

I can't quite see from the photo that the tank is a saddle tank, but the carrier is a strong pointer to saddle tank (1929-on). Of course it could be a 1928 flat tanker with an updated carrier!!

Cheers

Leon

My pleasure. It's a great photo - all the better for the bike being covered with happy young men. Do you know who they are?

Leon