Scottish Bike Show - some Ariels

[Bob.Murphy]

I was at the Scottish Bike show at the Royal Highland Showground, Edinburgh at the weekend (it's about one mile from my house !). There was the usual range of cheap helmets, cheap tools, Chinese bikes, 'Custom bike' display, overpriced burgers and then - the Classic Bike Hall!

Attendance this year seemed to be down a bit on previous years, strange, I would have thought that Covid Lockdown would have resulted in more projects being completed, but apparently not.

Only three Ariels to be seen (unless I missed something) and here they are:-

This 'VH' is a bit of a 'Bitsa' !

That's my five pictures, I'll have to put up another post.

Bob.

[Bob.Murphy]

To continue . . . .

And finally . . . I do love 'Cammy Nortons' !!

Bob.

[Roger Gwynn]

The 200 Arrow includes one of the more inaccurate potted histories of Ariel, worse than most auctioneers and that is saying something.

[will_curry]

I agree with Roger about the description.

I like the 'original' missing air filter and as a 200 it would have had tank badges which
proudly displayed its diminutive capacity. On the subject of missing it's nice to still
be able to see the holes in the front mudguard where the front number plate once
lived. The route for the front brake cable seems rather long-winded and the cover over
the brake anchor at the forks is not there, taken off perhaps to provide an lashing
point for the cable.

[Simon.Gardiner]

That Arrow 200....some nice white/ivory overspray on the front tyre and that cable under the steering head, and nice resprayed front suspension caps?!
Also a very snazzy quickly-detachable mirror mounting in the right-hand handlebar end!!

On a different note, is that combined throttle twistgrip and front brake lever standard? (I don't think I've ever seen that particular combination of controls before.)

SG

[will_curry]

Yes, it is and they are fairly rare. The alloy pivot for the brake lever is very vulnerable
when the bike goes over and the combined unit was pricey even in the day so the
broken pivot got chopped off and a separate brake lever added.

The twistgrip used a smaller than standard cable ferrule too which could be fun to find.

[Bob.Murphy]

Thanks for the comments, I thought you would find plenty to get your teeth into !

Bob.