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Sunbeam Cycles made by John Marston Limited of Wolverhampton was a British brand of bicycles and, from 1912 to 1956
motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
s. On John Marston's death after the First World War it was bought by Nobel Industries, Nobel became ICI. Associated Motor Cycles bought it in 1937; then, BSA bought Sunbeam in 1943. Sunbeam Cycles is most famous for its S7 balloon-tyred shaft-drive motorcycle with an
overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located b ...
in-line twin engine.


History

Sunbeam Cycles was founded by John Marston, who was born in
Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...
,
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
, UK in 1836 of a minor landowning family. In 1851, aged 15, he was sent to
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...
to be apprenticed to Edward Perry as a japanware manufacturer. At the age of 23 he left and set up his own japanning business making any and every sort of domestic article. He did so well that when Perry died in 1871 Marston bought Perry's business and amalgamated it with his own. In 1887 Marston began making bicycles and, on the suggestion of his wife Ellen, he adopted the trademark brand Sunbeam; their Paul Street works were named Sunbeamland. John Marston was a perfectionist, and this was reflected in the high build-quality of the Sunbeam bicycle, which had an enclosure around the
drive chain Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles. ...
in which an oil bath kept the chain lubricated and clean. Sunbeam bicycles were made until 1936.


Engines

From 1903 John Marston Limited had made some early experiments in adding engines to bicycles but they were unsuccessful; a man was killed. John Marston's aversion to motorcycles did not encourage further development. Following experimental products made in the late 1890s, cars were built from 1902. A quite separate organisation located a mile away in Blakenhall, named Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited, was founded in 1905. However, suffering from a slump which hit car making, Marston was pushed into making motorcycles from 1912 onwards (at the age of 76), for which there was a large and increasing market. Following in the tradition of their bicycles, the motorcycles were of high-quality, usually with a single
cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
, and known as the Gentleman's Machine. Sunbeam motorcycles performed well in the early days of the famous TT (Tourist Trophy) races in the
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. Another Marston company product line started in 1931, with marine outboard engines first marketed as Marston Seagull, later known as
British Seagull The British Seagull was a British manufacturer of two-stroke outboard engines in Poole, Dorset from the late 1930s until the mid-1990s. Although their "Classic" engines were for decades an exemplar of rugged simplicity and reliability, the compa ...
.


Ownership

After the First World War John Marston Limited was sold to a consortium. In 1919, the consortium became part of Nobel Industries Limited. In 1927 Nobel Industries amalgamated with Brunner Mond Ltd. to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). In this huge organization motorcycles were a small part. In 1937 the Sunbeam motorcycle trademark was sold to
Associated Motor Cycles Ltd Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) was a British motorcycle manufacturer founded by the Collier brothers as a parent company for the Matchless and AJS motorcycle companies. It later absorbed Francis-Barnett, James, and Norton before incorporation i ...
(AMC) which continued to make Sunbeam bicycles and motorcycles until 1939. AMC's core business was the manufacture of
Matchless Matchless is one of the oldest marques of British motorcycles, manufactured in Plumstead, London, between 1899 and 1966. A wide range of models were produced under the Matchless name, ranging from small two-strokes to 750 cc four-stroke tw ...
and AJS motorcycles. Some years after it sold Sunbeam, AMC went on to own
Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada * Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
,
James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...
and
Francis-Barnett Francis & Barnett Limited was an English motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1919 by Gordon Inglesby Francis and Arthur Barnett and based in Lower Ford Street, Coventry, England. Early motor cycles were affectionately known as ' Franny B'. Motorcy ...
. In 1943 AMC sold the Sunbeam name to BSA and Sunbeam Cycles Limited was incorporated. Sunbeams were built not at BSA's main factory at
Small Heath, Birmingham Small Heath is an area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman times, sits on top of a small hill. ...
, but at another BSA factory in
Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...
,
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
. Three Sunbeam motorcycle models were produced from 1946 to 1956, inspired by BMW motorcycles supplied to the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
during the Second World War. They were followed by two scooter models from 1959 to 1964.


Models


Sunbeam bicycles

Sunbeam bicycles (always "The Sunbeam") were made in Wolverhampton from 1887 to 1937. As the factory was used to sheet-metal working and japanning (the Victorian equivalent of today's oven-baked enamel or 'powder coating') the construction of cycles presented few problems. At first of similar design to other makers' machines, the company adopted a version of Harrison Carter's Little oil-bath chain case in the mid-1890s. The cycle was re-designed so that the oil contained in the oil bath lubricated the bottom bracket, chain and rear hub, the only cycle so designed to date.


Sunbeam motorcycles

Many John Marston Sunbeam motorcycle models were produced. The first was a 350 cc in 1912 followed by a range of 500 cc singles and some v-twins. In 1924, a new model numbering system was introduced; Sunbeam Models 1 through 11. Other higher-numbered models were produced in later years. The majority had single-cylinder engines developing relatively low power, though winning the TT races often, the last time in 1929. A hallmark of all Marston Sunbeams was the superb quality and finish in black with gold-leaf pinstriping.


S model motorcycles

The S models were designed for BSA by
Erling Poppe Erling Poppe (12 November 1898 – 1970) was an Austrian-born English-raised motor vehicle designer who studied engineering in Birmingham, England, and designed Packman & Poppe Motorcycles, Sunbeam S7 and S8, Sunbeam motorcycles and Gordon (1954- ...
and manufactured from 1946 to 1956. There were three: the S7, S8 and S7 Deluxe. All three were very expensive but with only modest performance which resulted in low sales. The unusual engine layout was the S7's notable feature with an engine and drive similar to that of a car. The engine was a longitudinally mounted inline vertical OHC 500 cc twin with coil ignition and wet sump lubrication which, through a dry clutch, drove a shaft drive to the rear wheel. The inline engine made this technologically feasible (
flat-twin A flat-twin engine is a two-cylinder internal combustion engine with the cylinders on opposite sides of the crankshaft. The most common type of flat-twin engine is the boxer-twin engine, where both pistons move inwards and outwards at the same ti ...
"boxer" engines on BMW motorcycles had already used shaft drives). Unlike BMW, who sensibly specified a
bevel gear Bevel gears are gears where the axes of the two shafts intersect and the tooth-bearing faces of the gears themselves are conically shaped. Bevel gears are most often mounted on shafts that are 90 degrees apart, but can be designed to work at othe ...
crown-&-pinion drive to the rear wheel, Sunbeam used
worm gear A worm drive is a gear arrangement in which a worm (which is a gear in the form of a screw) meshes with a worm wheel (which is similar in appearance to a spur gear). The two elements are also called the worm screw and worm gear. The terminol ...
ing with a bronze spiral gear; by reputation the soft bronze gave rapid wear of drive components. The original S7 was produced from 1946 to 1948. In 1949, the sportier S8, with standard-sized wheels rather than the fat tyres of the S7, and BSA type front forks, was produced. The S7 design was improved and then sold as the S7 Deluxe. The original S7 was available only in black, whereas the standard colours for the S8 were "Polychromatic Grey" or black. The S7 Deluxe came in either "Mist Green" or black. If sold abroad then BSA would supply the Sunbeam in almost any colour that BSA used. Although the early S7 was not a good seller or mechanically very sound, it is the most sought after and commands a premium over the S7 Deluxe and the S8. When Sunbeam production came to an end, BSA sold the remaining stock of parts to Stewart Engineering, and this company is now the sole supplier of spares for post-war Sunbeam motorcycles.


B model scooters

1959 to 1964 B1, B2 Scooters (see BSA Sunbeam).


References


Further reading

*Champ, R.C. 1983. ''Sunbeam S7 & S8 Super Profile''. Haynes Publishing Group, Yeovil. 56 pp. *Champ, R.C. 1980. ''The Sunbeam Motorcycle''. Haynes Publishing Group, Yeovil. 205pp. *Champ, R.C. 1989. ''The Illustrated History of Sunbeam Cycles and Motorcycles''. Haynes Publishing Group, Yeovil. 112pp. *Haycraft, W.C. 1954. ''The Book of the Sunbeam S7 and S8''. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Bath. vii + 120 pp. *Munro, D.W. 1954. ''Sunbeam Motor Cycles''. Motorcycle Maintenance and Repair Series. C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., London. 138 pp.


External links


On the Beam The Club for S7 S8 owners since 1963Classic Glory
{{British motorcycle manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Wolverhampton British brands Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1887 Defunct cycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct motorcycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England