This was Sunbeam's top-of-the-lineup motorcycle for 1937 before their sale to AMC (AJS/ Matchless). 600cc. Overhead valves. Likely meant for fast touring.

History. In a nutshell, I bought this from Big D Cycle out of Dallas about 14 years back. They told me that they in turn bought it as a large lot of Brit bikes stored in a local warehouse that came over from the UK in the 70s when the pound/ dollar exchange was particularly good, but then essentially left to languish over decades. I had the magneto professionally rebuilt, same with the carb, had the front brake relined and arced and rebuilt the generator myself (former railroad electrician) using a newly rebuilt armature, brushes and bearings. In the past year its also received new tires and tubes.

Starts and runs easily -- great compression and doesn't smoke -- and as I write this, fuel and oil has been added back to the 'bike after long storage and battery is in a good state of charge.

Overall condition. It's an 87 year old motorcycle. So consider that. Unrestored/ survivor. Its had at least one repaint -- that of the tank and rear fender leaves something to be desired, but there are no dents, excess holes or rust to speak of. Frame and forks are straight. The horn, tool box and rear stand are lost to time but wouldn't be difficult to source. Side stand casting has a broken tab so a '60s Flanders side stand was modified for placement up front where most of the 'bikes weight is anyway. No broken wheel spokes. Speedo still works -- not sure about odometer. Still wears the vast majority of its nickel plated Whitworth fasteners which -- amazingly -- aren't all rounded off or stripped out. Electrics all work fine in spite of the Lucas jokes. Gearbox shifts through all gears fine but not snick, snick, snick like a new 'bike -- more like a 60s BMW. Almost agricultural. The kickstarter occasionally jams up when attempting to start the 'bike but not often enough for me to get off my butt, pop the outer cover off and fit a NOS replacement I found at a Brit bike meet some years back.  Critical serial numbers appear original and correct for the 'bike per R. Champ's 1980 book, "The Sunbeam Motorcycle".

Note: In one or more pictures, the carb is shown temporarily off of the machine as I was cleaning the passages of any gummy fuel at that time. It is currently back on and a tune was done.

Running/ riding: being a big single, you really feel the power pulses especially at low speed. Stops smoothly especially since I had the front brake redone some years ago. Takes a good 10-15 minutes to really warm up from what I remember. Nothing rattles -- it feels solid. No visible smoke which would usually be indicative of worn piston rings. Great compression which the 'bike will remind you of should you not pay attention to the spark advance upon start up.

Sundries. I have some original/ repro sales lit, maintenance manuals, a few spare parts like plugs, bulbs, generator and mag stuff that will go with it. Some specialized machine-made tools also.

Title/ tags. Clear California title under my name. Currently tagged and insured through August of this year.

I'm selling my Sunbeam for three reasons: 1.) I've put maybe 50 miles on it in all of the past 10 years so at some point I have to question why am I continuing to renew the tags and insurance year after year? 2.) With retirement coming up, I'm looking towards a real estate purchase and will likely need every cent to pull that off. 3.) With #2 in mind, having spent a lifetime in various manual trades, my body is also just getting older and roughing it on old M/C's isn't what it used to be for me. Not that you, the reader, will really care but inevitably someone will ask anyway.

Finally, I'm not interested in shipping it -- I don't have the back, tools or truck to pull that off at present. I can however hold it for an agreed upon generous amount of time before you, the buyer, are able to pick it up. Thanks for looking and if there's something I've left out, please ask.