Description
National Motorcycle Museum | Solihull, West Midlands
Viewing: Tues 24th March from 1pm
Auction: Wed 25th March from 9am
Location: National Motorcycle Museum, Coventry Road, Bickenhill, Solihull B92 0EJ
1930 Sunbeam TT Model 90
Believed to be Charlie Dodson's 1930 TT practice bike
Estimate
£14, 000 - £16, 000
Registration No: UK 8517
Frame No: E6831
MOT: Exempt
Originally owned by John Marston Ltd., makers of Sunbeam, and loaned to TT racer Charlie Dodson
Dodson stated how he would borrow a bike from the factory for TT practice
Restored in the late 1990s and part of a private collection since 2003
The Road and Race Collection
With its OHV 493cc engine and saddle tank, the Sunbeam Model 90 was the vintage 500 par excellence. Ridden to victory by Charlie Dodson in the Senior TT in 1928 and 1929 (when he set a record speed at 72. 05mph), very little besides a smaller front tyre distinguished the TT machines from standard road-going Model 90s.
This example was first registered on March 24th, 1930, in the name of John Marston of Wolverhampton, the company which produced Sunbeams. A note scribbled in the logbook said “On loan to Dodson.” This followed a 1929 interview for Motor Cycling in which Dodson said, “My preparation for the TT starts a month before the real practices. I obtain a machine of the type to be used in the races, and two or three days a week indulge in a good early-morning blind, in some desolate part of the country.” Unfortunately, Dodson, despite leading on the first lap of the 1930 TT, was to retire on the third lap with valve trouble.
The bike was sold to a private owner in Manchester just after the 1930 TT, and changed hands many times, gradually migrating through Bury, Bolton, Liverpool and Blackpool until 1951, when it was bought by Cyril Brewer, who swapped a Rudge for it. Brewer, who worked as a fitter for Hawker Aircraft and Arthur Elliott (the man behind the Blackpool Illuminations). Brewer used it as regular transport and was extremely scrupulous, taking detailed notes and visiting the local registration archives to discover the previous owners and, it turned out, the Dodson connection. Brewer’s son John recollected how he ran it in the 1960s with “two strange Brooklands exhausts held up by aluminium apparatus,” and once had to push it through the Mersey Tunnel after breaking down.
John Brewer inherited the Sunbeam on his father’s death in 1993, and sold it in unrestored condition to William Page of Leeds in 1996. Page subjected it to a full restoration, before selling it in 2003 to the present owner, a collector of important historic motorcycles. Having been on static display for many years, it will require recommissioning. It is supplied with a large history file including copies of many period magazine articles pertaining to Dodson and the TT, copies of Mr. Brewer’s notes, and handwritten operating instructions.
** Bidding will take place live at the venue, online via our H&H website, by telephone and commission - T&Cs apply**
Parking and entry into the auction is free for auction attendees with a catalogue, available at the door.
Catalogues can be purchased for £20 (admits 2 people).
