Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Trouble is , these things aren't looked at till they break. It's not easy to test their" condition". It's possible Drags haven't sold many. If you have a "chair" or race or ride fast you don't need a locked brake, which is what happens when this part fails. Nobody needs a locked brake and one caused my only "come off ever" on the road, where another vehicle wasn't involved to hit me.
This is the place where you adjust the brake on an Ariel if you are lucky enough to have a model that fits it and it is the main reason Ariel brakes work better than other similar age bikes + the cast drum which is better than steel always.. It's on rear brakes from about 38 and the front where tele forks are fitted. I 'm lucky I have a few spare (for ME, sorry) but I would even consider replacing them on any bike I have that has them. You could test yours with a small shifter on the edge of the wider round part by applying a reasonable force. If it does break you have maybe saved yourself an injury, but we better have a source before you start testing. THAT actually doesn't make sense but you know what I mean. Some of these may have been made from a better batch of potmetal which is what it was often referred to as.. You can't usually weld it either. It has zinc, aluminium and lead in it. It's really rubbish but casts well. The aluminium brake shoes are of GOOD metal. They don't dare make them of diemetal. Perhaps someone has, but they should then be tarred and feathered. Nev

These small angled Girling units were used on some small cars with rod brakes post war.....I have some fitted to the little diesel dumpy trucks ....like Liner and Benford.....the hard bit is the expander because Girlings normally used pull wedge expanders.......the truck ones were all made from aluminium bronze originally,modern replacements are cast iron,and are very expensive.

Simon.Gardiner wrote:

nevhunter wrote:...Time to act.? Nev

Might be worth phoning Drags to see what the situation is with these. Since they've reworked the web site they might have lost some of the listings (I've found a couple of issues in the past).
If, as Nev suggests, it is 'time to act' on these, I'd have thought that Drags would still have the means of getting more brass ones made up. Possibly another candidate for a joint venture with the club as with the singles rocker boxes? (Also the current AOMCC membership sec would probably be in a very good position to know about the sourcing for the brass replacements.)
James, are you in the AOMCC?

SG

Hi - yes I am in the AOMCC..

Your name should be red then.
Br, Eero

Good news - I phoned Draganfly and they do have new brass cast ones in stock (Simon was right - there was a glitch with their website)

Funny . Last weekend while out on my VHA the same thing happened to mine. The front brakes went mushy.
Luckily I had a spare upstairs in my bits.
I'll need to drop Drags an E mail then if they have them in stock.
I'm also an AOMC member but i'm not in red

The webmaster will paint your name red if you email him with your membership number.

More serious things can happen than the brake going mushy. It could easily lock up. Nev