you will find that nikasil is not suitable for coating direct onto the aluminium of existing Ariel cylinders. I tried and it failed, and others I know that have had other makes of older cast cylinders nikasil lined direct onto the aluminium have also had failures. Nikasil is however ok on new high q...

Do not use a 60% balance factor unless you want the fillings shaken out of your mouth. Ariel used 65% in all their singles, but anywhere from 65% to 67% will be good for the road.
David

No one has mentioned bent triple trees/yokes. I have straightened several bottom yokes where the yoke has been twisted on one side as a result of a collision. In one case I even had a bottom yoke where the yoke had been spread and the centres were at 7 ¾” rather than 7 5/8”. That was one yoke that I...

Merry Christmas to all. It is a wet one here. As we had our family Christmas last week, my plan was fishing am followed by a long VH ride pm. The weather has put a temporary stop to that, so that is now the plan for the first fine day. For now I will just enjoy another brandy. Again merry Christmas ...

Vincent Senior did build an OHC Ariel which is currently in the possession of a Mr Thomas. I have never seen the engine but was told that the ohc cam chain was run in the pushrod tunnels, however in the photo the rocker boxes appear standard. Yes Senior ran a Norton gearbox from fairly early in his ...

Brian I am not surprised that NSW RMS does not recognise a VCH. There are numerous glitches in our RMS registration data for older vehicles. When I went to register my 1956 4G mk2 square four the paperwork came up as ‘year 1956’ and ‘model 1956’. When I advised the customer service officer that was ...

I was the person who took the original photo of John holding the poster with his 1955 race results. John was standing in his shed with about 10 of his Ariels. I subsequently provided that photo to the Bathurst Australian Ariel Register rally organiser and a large framed copy was presented to John at...

Mark Good news that you have solved the problem. I will bet that the seller obtained the spark plugs from China and as such would have known that they were counterfeit. Chinese counterfeits have been a problem in Australia for some time, mostly purchased through ebay. If you purchased them with payp...

When tuning by plug colour you should start with a new plug. The plug shown may have done a lot of work. I have to disagree with the previous posts. Looking at the plug (maximised photo) in general for unleaded fuel the amount of soot on the sparkplug base ring and inside the metal body, and electro...

Have you thought about a k-liner. I am aware of a lot of worn guides being refurbished with a k-liner, and it is a simple job for a machine shop. Apart from that if you are going to make them, the most favoured material is Ampco 45 which is an aluminium bronze or Cosilbro which is a silicone bronze....