Cuckooland

The great British weather yet again conspired against us on the annual gathering of Sunbeams organised by Archie Beggs at the Cuckooland museum near Tabley in Cheshire.

After tea and biscuits our expert hosts Roman and Maz showed us a selection of their many hundreds of cuckoo clocks that all originated from the same 25 square mile region of the Black Forest. The two brothers have amassed and restored a staggering collection of these beautiful clocks including my own personal favourite that would have originally had pride of place in a castle.

Back outside with the rain easing off it was left to redoubtable Richard Jones to unload and fire up his Sunbeam Model 9 cum 90.

The bike started, ran and ticked over extremely well despite its sporty and needless TT carburettor. Lots of “patina” and period accessories including a remarkable rear-wheel driven speedo drive mechanism made this a bike to linger over.

The bike must have been local originally judging by the Liverpool, Bold Street address of the dealer on the front mudguard.