REGISTER CONTACTS:

Trevor Davies
Brian Watton

e-mail:

trevor@daviesnewport.f9.co.uk
brian@wattonb.freeserve.co.uk

There is a modest yearly subscription of £10 plus initial registration fee of £5 for non-members (in 2009). It supports an annual newsletter and a number of events.

The club organises an annual meeting in Wolverhampton in June/July for cycles and motor cycles.

In August, in partnership with the Sunbeam MCC, it organises a weekend Testers' Run - a recreation of the factory testers' route from Wolverhampton into mid-Wales and back.

It also assists in the organisation of the annual Festival of Black Country Vehicles at the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley.

From 2008 the Marston Wolverhampton Heritage Trust also runs its motor cycles regularly at the Black Country Living Museum. Contact the Museum for details.

Get yourself on the Register if you are not already. Its objective is simply to keep Sunbeams up and running.

The Marston Sunbeam Register is the club for the owners of pre-1945 Sunbeam motor cycles.

... and fine credentials it has too. Like the original Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club of 1924 (now, the all-make club for veteran and vintage machines) it too sprang from Marstons. In this case Marston Palmer in 1982. In 2007 the Register celebrated its 25th anniversary - a silver jubilee.

▲ PHOTO - Awaiting the start of the Testers' Run from Marstons, August 2003

Whereas the original Sunbeam MCC opened its door to all makes of motor cycle shortly after its inception, the Register is just for those fine old Wolverhampton 'Beams. Although, there seem to be one or two exceptions.

The first is that the Register does not seem averse to Sunbeam-badged motor cycles made during AMC's brief period following its take-over of the Wolverhampton works (1937-40). The owners of AMC Sunbeams seem otherwise to have no club to turn to. A number of the machines were assembled using Wolverhampton-made parts - notably the side-valve models.

(BSA's acquisition of the Sunbeam name after the war produced a very different motor cycle in the flat twin S7 and S8  models catered for by the well-established Sunbeam Owners' Fellowship.)

The second exception takes account of Marston's Wolverhampton-made rivals, notably AJS (1903-31) and the subsequent Stevens machines (1934-38). Most Register events seem happy to include these machines. It was always a very civilised rivalry with the 'opposition'.
 

Proposed: Pre-1945 Sunbeam Motorcycle Spares Scheme

Marston Sunbeam Register and VMCC member Bruce Harrison has proposed setting up a Sunbeam spares scheme along similar lines to those run by other clubs, building on the Register's past work in providing a limited supply of spares.

He received a good number of positive responses to a questionnaire sent out towards the end of last year (2009) and will be reporting progress later this year. In the meantime, should anyone wish to contact him his e-mail address is:-

• E-mail: brunanjac@supanet.com

The Sunbeam Marston Register: Technical Advice

▲ PHOTO - Brian Cowen, Charlie Dodson's 1930 Senior TT 'Beam and winding Welsh roads (from Lumic's DVD of the Testers' Run)

Brian Cowen, a third-generation Marston man known for giving Charlie Dodson's 1930 Senior TT machine a good outing on past Testers' Runs, provides technical advice for Register members. If you have any technical queries about your 'Beam, drop Brian a line.

Brian's e-mail address is: chowcowen@aol.com

▲ PHOTO - Charlie Dodson with the 1930 Senior TT 'Beam (from Lumic's DVD of the Testers' Run)
 

The Sunbeam Marston Register on Film

Wondered what the folk at the Register get up to? The answer, in part, is captured on film! The Register’s 1995 Testers’ Run was filmed and released by Lumic of Kingswinford as a video entitled, 'Classic British Motorbikes: AJS and Sunbeam - The Testers' Run'.

The film is a good 60 minutes' worth of entertainment for any vintage motor cycle fan as the cameras accompany the present-day ‘testers’ on the route taken by their 1920s and ‘30s predecessors. Poignantly, many of today's riders are current Marston employees. The motor cycles sound and look great. The dramatic appearance of the Sunbeams emerging from the famous Paul Street gate at Sunbeamland, Wolverhampton is to be savoured.

We get to follow the riders through the picturesque Shropshire Marches and mid-Wales countryside, enjoying a rider's-eye view of the scenery and of the motor cycle from the saddle. You almost feel you are there with them soaking up the bumps on the trusty girder forks.

A good array of some 18 Sunbeam and AJS machines in both flat-tank and saddle-tank guise are featured, from the most sporting Model 90s to trusty side-valves and combinations. The testers share their thoughts, as well as their enthusiasm for the bikes, as they complete over a weekend what to the original testers was a route to be completed, there and back, during a working day.

A DVD version is now available from Lumic or through this site. The cost is £9.00 plus £1.00 packaging and postage (UK). E-mail the web-site if you are interested.

Extracts from the Register Newsletters:-

( follow the links as entries are added )