Autocar UK – 07 August 2019

ARIEL ACE RIDE

7 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 49

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What the Atom and Ace share

is a sense of occasion

a

Ariel’s first

bicycle was

notable

for having

patented,

tension-spoked

wheels, and

the company

had been in

business for

more than a

quarter of a

century before

it made its

first motorised

vehicles. They

were powered tricycles and

quadricycles with only a few

horsepower, while its first

motorcycle arrived in 1902.

Cars were made until 1925,

including, in 1908, a ‘grand prix

racer’, while in the 1930s the bikes

• notably the single-cylinder Red

Hunter and 1000cc Square Four –

were so successful that Ariel even

bought Triumph.

In the 1950s Ariel and Triumph

b e c a m e p a r t of BS A , th e n n ot

long after Japanese bikes arrived

and that was pretty much it for

Britain’s motorcycle industry.

The last machine to bear the

Ariel name was BSA’s innovative

but odd Ariel 3, a 49cc tilting trike

which kept its two back wheels on

the ground. The design was later

licensed but the 3 was a failure.

ARIEL’S TWO-

WHEEL HERITAGE

Price 

Engine 

Power

Torque

Gearbox

Kerb weight

0-62mph

Top speed

£39,950

1996cc, 4 cyls, turbo, petrol

320bhp at 6500rpm

310lb ft at 3000rpm

6-spd manual

595kg

2.8sec

162mph

from £20,000

1237cc, V4, petrol

173bhp at 10,000rpm

9 7 l b f t a t 8 7 5 0 r p m

6-spd manual

230kg

3.1sec

165mph

ARIEL ATOM 4 ARIEL ACE

ONE

TECHNICIAN

Like an AMG

engine, choose an

Atom, Nomad or Ace and

one technician will have

put it together – and

put their name

on it.

4, one of the most fiercely responsive

and accelerative road cars I’ve driven,

has ‘only’ 537bhp per tonne.

So in the way that I know

commercial gas burners get really

hot , I k now t h i s bi k e c a n go v e r y f a s t ,

although in both cases I’m taking it

a s r e a d r at he r t h a n s t ic k i n g my h a nd

over the f lame.

I can tell you it’s beautifully

engineered and put together, and it is

fun and responsive at low speeds. The

s e at i s low, t h r ot t le r e s p on s e sh a r p.

I read that the ground clearance isn’t

amazing compared to a sports bike’s,

but the only time I ‘get my knee down’

i s w he n I ’m g r e a si n g a c h a i n. But t he

Ace isn’t a sports bike.

And that’s fine. The Atom isn’t a

conventional sports car, either. If all

y ou w a nt e d t o do w a s go r e a l l y f a s t ,

like everybody else does, you’d make

it slipperier through the air. What

the Atom and Ace share is on-display

engineering integrity and a sense of

occasion, and nobody else quite does

it so spectacularly or appealingly.

Not a sports bike, then. Not sure

it’s a cruiser, either. But it’s definitely,

unashamedly an Ariel, and all the

better for it. L

The first Ariel bike in

decades is fun, quirky

and potentially terrifying

engineered, relatively expensive

£20,000-plus bike with loads of

op t ion s. Way mor e t h a n on t he A t om.

Bikes aren’t usually this

customisable from the factory.

You can spec a BMW R Nine-T as

a scrambler, a retro race bike or a

naked street bike, but see them in

profile and they’re pretty similar.

The Ace takes the concept much

further. Whichever Ace you spec,

you get an aluminium frame that

h a s b e e n m a c h i ne d for 70 hou r s , a nd

a 1 2 0 0 c c V4 e ng i ne (f rom Hond a ,

naturally). But there are two different

front ends – normal telescopic forks

or girder forks – two geometries,

three fuel tanks, four seats, options

on handlebars, exhausts, foot pegs,

wheels and more. The majority of

buyers apparently go with something

like you see here: a cruiser rather

than sportster, with funky girder

forks and relaxed geometry.

Not that I’m totally relaxed, and

a glance at the specification reveals

why. The VFR1200 engine makes an

incredible noise and 173bhp, and the

whole caboodle weighs about 230kg,

so the power-to-weight ratio (before

r ide r) i s 752bhp p e r t on ne. A n A t om

The Ace’s frame is machined for 70 hours