Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

I have just finished scanning and uploading copies of Cheval that were loaned to me for that purpose, they go back to 1962, although there are missing copies, so the records are not complete. It should be noted that in these earlier times, there were periods when Cheval was not issued, possibly due to logistics in production, or just lack of an editor?
I will endeavour to locate and scan the missing issues in due course, but in the meantime if you have time to spare, have a look at some of the copies. I have endeavoured to scan the copies systematically, but there may be the occasional slipup or error where a page has been duplicated, or the quality of the original print was not so good.
A longer term aim is to index the contents of these earlier issues, as some contain useful techinal information or advice that would still be relevant to current owners. There have been previous indices created, but it would require considerable effort to get these into an user friendly searchable system.
The copies are in pdf format, and need to be downloaded to be read, most usually by Adobe Acrobat, and can be seached for any particular word of interest.

Thanks Pete, I just have a look back to my birth year of 1962. Great Work! Maybe one day we'll end up filling in the gaps.

BTW, I think the FTP has left an admin file behind (?) as it shows the following [ERROR: unexpected filename ".ftpquota" [0]]

Hi Dave, I too had noticed the error message that was already there when I began this second round of uploads, but as it didn't seem to affect the upload process, I ignored it, and have left it to webmaster Simon to decide ifanything needs doing about it .

The amount of work Pete has put in here is huge. I put up one or two at the very beginning and realise the amount of effort needed. Thank you Pete.

hi i think that we are very lucky to have someone like Pete to spend a very lot of his time doing this for us and the club with a lot knowledge for the members for as long as the club is going , thank you pete

I've removed the 'ftp quota' file but it may come back the next time someone uses ftp to that directory.....

(Pete - you've been doing a great job, thanks)

SG

I have the original C# code somewhere which lists the chevals from the folder. Not sure whether this is still in use?

If it is and needs any tweaking I can always make the changes if required.

Dave:
I suspect C# doesn't run in the current Linux environment that the website and forum are hosted on....
Feel free to work out what's up with the javascript in the Goat Shrine sometime though!

SG

Great work on getting these scanned - Thank you !

I have now scanned and uploaded the Cardiff branch archive of Chevals, going back to 1959, although the archive appears to be incomplete, with some duplicate copies existing. Reviewing an Excel spreadsheet of Cheval availability, the uploaded files suggest the spreadsheet record is inaccurate, as copies recorded as not published were available. It is difficult to know exactly what was available some sixty years ago, as there were some times when a change of editor or other reasons caused a hiccup in publishing Cheval. I will endeavour to ascertain what copies are available, but not yet scanned and uploaded. I believe the copies scanned were mostly if not all complete, any blank pages were ignored, but there may be some omissions. Some copies have a date stamp, but it is unclear if this was the date of central issue, or just when the branch received and distributed copies to members.
The content of these early Chevals was much more focused on events and branch reports, and also included some stories or tales used to fill the magazine content, the editor often complaining about a lack of contributions for publishing. It also contained a few "spats" in the letters section, I guess some things never change, these days such disagreements seem to be more quickly aired on social media accounts! There is not much technical input, although as the two strokes were still in production in the early sixties, any articles were mostly focused on them.
Do have a look through these early Cheval copies, although I did not read them fully when checking a scanned proof before uploading, it gives an idea of how the club operated in those early days, when organised runs of any distance were made in pre motorway days, often taking an whole long day to arrive back at the starting point.