Another year, another great Stafford show and the ’28 Model 90 makes her first appearance in polite society.

It went to the wire but John Phizacklea pulled out all the stops to get the bike ready in time for the 2014 Stafford Classic Motorcycle show. After abandoning the grid-locked M6, John faced a tortuous 3 hour cross-country journey that coincidentally took him right past the Wolverhampton Sunbeamland factory. Perhaps fitting that the first journey of the newly rebuilt bike should include the place where it was first constructed. Finally arriving at 6pm we quickly unloaded the bike and set it up in the private entries area from where, after a final polish, we were shortly ejected.

We are incredibly pleased with the final result and hope that the bike is a fitting testament to the skills of the “holy trinity” who made this possible.

Of course Peter Woodward must take massive credit for the bike and he is responsible for the detail, accuracy and authenticity of the majority of the components and engineering on the bike. Not withstanding the quality of the major elements of the bike Peter’s touches are everywhere that you look from the ’28 only angular profile of the silencers to the double-curvature mudguard washers to the English Lever toolbox lock.

The crank and cases in particular needed serious attention and without Chris Odling’s vast engineering skills and experience we would have been in some serious trouble. Chris must have the patience of a saint to put up with my constant badgering but despite this, he found the time to put together an engine and gearbox package that should last another 80 years.

And finally, John Phizacklea despite suffering my interminable phone calls, perhaps even more than Chris, has pulled it all together. The wheel building alone was a mammoth exercise as the spoke nipples are individually hand turned to match the profile of the original Sunbeam items. Not only does John have the engineering background, experience and capability to do the 1001 jobs needed on a project such as this but the bike is topped off with a coat of John’s trademark, deep black liquid gloss paintwork.

Thanks guys.