It’s hard to believe that Richard Rosenthal has owned this Sunbeam since 2012, as ever since he acquired it, he’s been offering me a go on it. Finally, in 2022, we were able to make that scenario a reality.
I well remember Richard acquiring the 1927 TT Model 90 as, pretty much then as now, such a model was top of my wish/desirability list; well, it occupied top spot with a flat-tank Model 18 Norton. Richard, who’s heard my tale before, always reminds me that, really, the Sunbeam found him, as what he really wanted was a flat-tank Model 18…
He explains: “In 2011, our family friend ‘Hoppy’ [Philip Hopkins] got in touch, asking me to value his TT90 as he wanted to sell and give the money to his two stepdaughters, so they could get mortgages.
“I did the necessary and a friend of his agreed to buy, but the deal never took place. Someone else then offered lots less but around that time, I received an inheritance from my mum’s estate. With that money, I bought the Sunbeam for the price I’d valued it at. Ironic, really, that mum’s cash bought it as she hated motorcycles…”
But to start at the beginning of this remarkable motorcycle’s tale, drawing heavily on an account) magazine, in 1926, a well-to-do Cambridgeshire farmer, named Harper Joseph Roads, wanted a new Sunbeam. The owner of a Triumph Ricardo – fitted with some rather snazzy wheel discs – young Roads (born 1899) had previously owned a 1920 Sunbeam and duly fancied another of the Marston-made machines.
