Sunbeam Cycles

For the Wolverhampton automobile manufacturers, see Sunbeam Motor Car Company.

John Marston Limited
Sunbeam
Company typePrivate company
IndustryBicycle and motorcycle
Founded1887; 137 years ago (1887) in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
FounderJohn Marston
Fatedefunct
Headquarters
Wolverhampton
,
England
ProductsBicycles and motorcycles
OwnerJohn Marston
Mist Green S7 showing shaft-driven rear wheel and balloon tyres captured on highway, central England in 2007
1924 Sunbeam Model 9 on display at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Birmingham, Alabama. The single-cylinder motorcycle had a displacement of 499cc, weighed 345 pounds, and had a top speed of 75 mph.

Sunbeam Cycles made by John Marston Limited of Wolverhampton was a British brand of bicycles[1] and, from 1912 to 1956 motorcycles.

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 in-line twin engine.

  1. ^ Sunbeam Cycles. The Times, Friday, Mar 18, 1898; pg. 4; Issue 35467