Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

It's another new year. I'll be riding my Ariel most of the time but I've a Norton Electra in the shed that I'm putting back together.
So putting my diary in to the Main Chat Forum means perhaps I can include it it some of my exploits with this bike.
It actually doesn't belong to me but to my good friend Stan in Canada so hopefully I'll get it back to him very quickly.

This is the poor thing when I got it.

Quick spray of WD40 and a rub over with autosol and it'll be fine....

Did it run Steve? And did you see the Electra resto articles in RealClassic earlier this year?

Not yet Simes, I've the engine back together though. Just the rest to do. I haven't read those articles yet as my subscription ran out last year. My mates got them so I must have a read.

iansoady wrote:Quick spray of WD40 and a rub over with autosol and it'll be fine....

Well that looks quite tidy!

Nice bike, but it's a Navigator Steve!

I don't think the legend that is Steven Carter would need such a thing as an electric start. Not like the rest of us mere mortals!

Vincent.vanGinneke wrote:Nice bike, but it's a Navigator Steve!

Ahhh, Vincent. I was confused by it also. The previous owner must have had lots of trouble with the electric start and gave up with it. He replaced it with a Navigator primary side. I even found the old electric relay that supplied the power to the electric start.

Got the back wheel back on. I've never had much to do with anything other then Ariel's. It's interesting to see how other manufactures deal with the same problems. The wheel spindles are much smaller in diameter.

The Electra used the same front and back wheels as the bigger Norton twins, I once purchased the remains of am Electra that the scrapyard employee had taken the wheels/forks off for his Dominator twin. I had a Navigator at the time with a erratic gearbox (only 3rd and top were reliable, good thing Norton clutches were robust!), and rebuilt it with the Electra crankcases and (later type) gearbox, using the Navigator barrels and heads.
The Electra chaincase, sprag drive and starter were sold off (sorry Steve!), as even then (mid 70's) they were sought after parts.
The 250 Jubilee twin had puny forks and wheels/Brakes, the Navigator retained the puny rear brake, but had roadholder forks and a 8" front brake, so I did not use the rear brake much.
The motor was also less oversquare (bore to stroke ratio) than the Jubilee, easier to set up and nicer to ride.

I've realy just to get it going and able to get an MOT. Then I can go about getting an age related number. I can then send the bike over to Canada with its correct documents.
I've finished getting the Huntmaster back on the road after its decoke. So far so good. I've a job in Worthing and Croydon tomorrow so that should prove things for me.

I've been using solid copper rocker cover gaskets that have proved to work very well with a light smear of builders cheap clear sillicone. I've reused these a few times now I just get them softened with a blow torch each time I use them.