This highly original combination is equipped with a 2.75hp, single-cylinder, MMC engine with belt drive and was identified as a 1903 model by the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club Dating Committee in 2006. It was first registered in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1904 and supplied new to a local doctor in Crieff. The doctor later traded it back to the original supplier where it remained until 1961 when it was purchased for the sum of £3/10s. Some weeks later, the new owner discovered that the bike should have been supplied with its original wicker sidecar, which had been stored elsewhere, and went and retrieved it. It is accompanied by an invoice from the Excelsior Motor Company which records that all of its metalwork was stripped, re-enamelled, and reassembled in 1962 for just another £3/10s.
Photographed in Nelson at New Zealand Classic Motorcycles

Excelsior 1903-1904 Models