Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Vincent.vanGinneke wrote:Here is something that might interest you.
I 'borrowed' this from The WD Motorcycle forum.]

Nice find Vincent...
Cheers
Alan

Mine first reg late 45 as a 46 mod ng as a engine no in the 400/420 range, they must like
ng's in Bury as mine spent some of its life there, in fact I lived about 400 yards from
its owners address, think the engine number is correct as I have a early log book and
the numbers are the same in the early 50's.

It is getting confusing now.
You first wrote BK 897 or BK497 but now it's in between 400 and 420 ?
Anyway, all these engine numbers point at a early postwar NG.

Think you are getting my post mixed up with the original poster's,

Oeps! yes, sorry!

I did a dating certificate for this bike in February 1998, probably for Mr Lemmon but I cannot be sure as my records are incomplete. The engine number was given as BK 897 rather than 497, which is a 1946 NG. The frame, XG 20758 is from a 1941 contract C10477 and was originally fitted with engine BH 11715.
Engine currently fitted BH 31379 is from a batch of unused numbers, which I assume come from engines supplied as spares as specified as part of most contracts but not listed in the despatch books. Crankcases supplied as spare parts were left blank, it was expected that the fitter would transfer the old number to the new cases and destroy the old, rarely happened in practise.

Thanks for this Roger, kinda interesting, just where was this engine for all these years? Like playing the detective, so interesting and in these cases the answer is normally out there somewhere, in real life I found it a little more difficult!
Now I need a rear lifting stay/handle.
kind regards

just browsing 'ere through this post the subject bike/engine gets 'curiouser' and 'curiouser', when examined 1998 it had a non wartime engine BKxxxx, yet it now has an earlier wartime, although unused, stamped engine BHxxxxx, crikey quelch!
Stay safe, it's getting better
Kind regards