TThhe‘‘mmaannccaavvee’aannddiittsspprreecciioouussooccccuuppaannttssas the factthatthe exhaustsexit th ehead
at adifferen tangle–not something thata
casual glancewould discover.The original
Monobloc carbwas removedthreeyears
ago,put in storeand replacedby alaterand
betterConcentric.And Ihave to admit that
whenIwentfor aride,this bike ticksover
and runs superbly.
So,has th is article whettedyour appetite
foranAriel Huntmaster?Todaythe BSA A10
with all itsvariants hasastron gfollowing,
but this only makes therarerHuntmaster,
with its lowcompression pistons–6.5 :1
–apossibly cheaper and maybe smoother
optionforcollecting,restoring and taking
out on those lovely summer days.
Also,the Ariel Owners Club hasastrong
and thriving national and international
membership.Iamlooking through their
magazine asItype this piece, in fa ct.The
veryfirst article demonstrates howthe
organisation prides itself on its abilityto
supply and source partsforall Ariels.Colin
Reed-Apsley forinstanceran the spares
departmentfor 14years beforepassing
on the baton. As Ilooked through the
magazine,Idiscovered manyinteres ting
articles thatincludedwell replicated
tteecchhnniiccaallddrraawwiinnggss,bbuutttthheeoonneetthhaattssttoooodd
out to me,and demonstratedthe depth
of i nterestand knowledge ofits members,
wasentitledAriel WorksDrawings.The
paragraph read:‘The worksdrawings held
by the club have nowbeen digitised,and
aretobemade availableto members in
portable digitalformat –pdf .The cost of
the conversionwasshared between the club
and DraganflyMotor cycles.’
Thedrawingswere re scuedby TimHealey,
who with his brotherGeorgeranGC&T
HealeyMotorcyc lesinRedditch.Timrecords:
‘I don’t re member the date,but it wasjust
afterBSA closed down–most of the factory
wasdemolished in 1977.Afriendofmine
calle dRoy Richmond,who usedto write
all the spares lists and manualsforBSA,
asked me ifIwould liketo go into BSAand
retriev ethe Arieldrawings.Acondition of
this wasthatIbring out all the BSA three-
wheeler drawings as well as theArielones.I
obviously saidyes!’
Andaren’tweglad thatguyslike this step
in quicklyto save precious documentsfor
futurereference?So,ify ou’relookingforan
easy classicto livewith, like the sound of a
thriving motorcycle societywith meetings,
rallies and pares back-up,then maybe an
Ariel–TheSpiritofTheAir–isj ust foryou.MythankstoDougWalkerforshowing
us his splendid 650 Huntmaster,andto
theArielOwnersClub96 I AUGUST 2019 More old bikes online: Real-Classic.co.uk