Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Hello Damien, The empty engine has -as you probably know- a postwar 500 top half.
The crankcase is post '53 (?) as it has the hole for a crankcase vent.
(unless it has been in the hands of someone like me )

I had a plan so cunning I could put a tail on it and call it a weasel. In a box I have cases I am pretty sure are correct year. No gubbins for the oil pump in em and they fit the brackets in the frame. I was going to see if this cylinder and head fit those cases. Bit of a motor jumble. I expect this will all come to grief because while they may go together a correct year tank wont have a hump to clear the rocker covers and also I am guessing that a crank that is some grafting of several different cranks will be required? Then problems with the push rod tubes also ? I've not got access to the knowledge base here but I am guessing this is well covered somewhere. For some reason I can't access my membership to the Australian Ariel group right now but I do have the big Ariel parts list which I am about to go and stare at in confusion while wishing it could magically become a spread sheet!

Oh well that is a surprise. They do line up. Really wasn't expecting em to. But then I have no clue.

Ofcourse they line up 1926-1959 sv and ohv is the same exept for the pre 1933 250cc and 350cc.
You're not the first do do this.

Thanks Adrie,

I was kind of hoping this is how it would go and took a punt but I wasn't entirely sure it would actually fit. So I just learned something. Cylinder has good fins on it and the top looks pretty good but the bore has seen better days. Down around the very bottom where the liner comes through a tea spoon sized piece of the casting is missing. I expect somebody has had a go in the past to get the liner out or at prying at the cylinder itself. Something brutal. I'll take a picture of the damage.

On the topic of mudguards and frames found good sideways drawing in the Black Ariel book today of the frame. Not looked to see if drawing is referenced yet. I expect it is. Absolutely wonderful book.

Dug in to it deeper today. Typical mouse nests removed. Top end I feel I can definitely do something with. Cylinder looks like quite a bit of meat left in the liner but also quite bad pitting. I'll not know the extent of the damage to it until I clean it up a bit more. But I think I see some deeper trouble in liner at the top. Might explain the chunk of casting missing at the bottom. I am guessing some substantial levering event ! Or part of somebodies plan to get the liner out ?

Girder forks arrived today. They were listed as BSA. They do appear to be straight. I am not sure what weight they are. I am guessing light weight? But they fit in the hole so that is once again a surprise.

Your cylinder is quite typical of a liner pressed into bike cylinder.....the thin margin left breaks away........I also note you have joined the dark side, making "classic " bikes out of miscellaneous ebay parts.

Indeed. Knackering the rare remains of the past with my nasty gammie grubbers ! Seriously though my thinking was that finding bits that fit brings me one step closer to more of a motorcycle and since my intent is to fix it and ride it and enjoy it I think that is all right. In my opinion snobs have ruined the pleasures of the motorcycling of my youth. My first bike came from a rubbish pile and was made of bits I pulled together and I'd have done the same thing in any decade to scrape by and get myself from A -> B. I think I can compromise on the girders since they are hard to find and I would rather avoid nasty poor quality death from the modern reproductions. I think what is different with this bike though is not so much what goes on it but how to avoid butchering anything that might have a better home elsewhere. I'd not want to cut up the stem up on these BSA girders for example as seen in a certain Dog House episode .... was good and all ... but made me a bit sad ...

One day while out on your Ariel a guy will step up to you offering a pukka '28 Ariel fork as a swop for your BSA one.
So no worries there, just wait for that day!
In the meantime; enjoy the ride.
Cilinder head looks good, no broken out holes which is often the case after a previous ham-fisted owner forced the rockerbox bolts down a clogged up hole. Although those breakages can be repaired it is a job you can do without.
keep up the good work !