New member 1941 Ariel W/NG

[YourivdA]

Hello all,

Last year in may I purchased something I had been looking for, for a while. I've had the dream to once own a WW2 vehicle and there is no better way to start then with a motorcycle. It's somewhat easy to transport and I own a space where I can peacefully work on it, on a ramp even.

To be fair I had no idea what I was getting in to. I've done my research, but when you've never really looked at a particular bike it's kinda hard to tell if parts are genuine or even belonging to the bike. I had some luck purchasing my Ariel. Not to expensive, at least I thought so. And pretty complete. Fully restorated in 2020 by three older guys, they owned more WW2 motorcycles. So I had confidence and bought my Ariel.

The frame is from a 1941 contract (frame number XG17219), the block is from an earlier contract I believe 1940 (BH3141) and the gearbox has number XICPBL28053.

It's been a year almost, full of adventures, a trip to Normandy, many many spark plugs and oil but mostly a load of fun. You can see it on the pictures, I bought it in the first week of may, and 4 weeks later we squeezed her in between our modern bikes on the trailer. I made a pillion seat on the rear rack, just so my girl could ride along if neccesary. Nothing original about that, but it was practical.

So far I've been quite busy sourcing parts and making it better. Lets say the so called restauration did not really meet my standards. A lot of things are poorly done. Simple things like leaking oil lines but also a wrongly fitted oil pump gasket (low oil pressure), lose main drive sprocket, wrong main front spring etc.

Things I've done so far:

- Fitted a new main spraing in the girder fork including the top spring anchor, the spring that came with it was from a BSA M20, which was rubbing the ballhead
- completly rebuild front brake, new brakelining, new brakerod etc
- full carburettor rebuild, fooled a plug every 10 miles or so
- took off the primaire chaincase and fully replaced it, was leaking because of improper repairs
- took off the timing chaincover, just to check it out, found that the oil pump gasket was fitted incorrectly, the holes didn't align so had low oil pressure
- filled the gearbox with an oil and grease mixture (it seemed almost empty), that was dumb, its leaking now when it gets warm on the main shaft, want to replace it with grease again
- fixed the exhaust, it was comming loose on the cilinder, I used a new clamp and some silicone bathroom caulk to fix it. Bit smelly in the beginning but has been working for quite some miles now.
- replaced the battery and revived the magdyno as it didnt charge
- all sorts of small things, replacing nuts and bolts for the right ones, adjustes the girder fork and rear brake

Things I still have to fix:

- I'm looking for a handlebar. Ofcourse I'd love to find a tapered one, but that somehow seems impossible. Right now I'm looking for a 7/8" bar with similar dimensons just to at least make it look better. Right now the bars are only 64cm wide, where its supposed to be around 74cm.
- The drive chain. It seems to have a though spot. I took it off, cleaned it properly so the full chain was nice and flexible, no hard spots. When I try to adjust the slack right now its to lose or either to tight on 1 spot. Since I just replaced the primary chaincase I really dont feel like taking the main sprockets of and place a full new set of sprockets and chain, I'll probably do that after the Normandy trip this year.
- Trying to make it more and more original.

I wonder what you think about my Ariel. I really enjoy reading the forum here and hope to find out lots more about the bike.

Have a good day!

[simon.holyfield]

Your bike looks great Youri, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

On the handlebars, I've got an idea that late in the war Ariel were using universal handlebars and fittings - these appear in the Orchard/Madden book if I recall correctly, and in a 1944 parts list I have showing standard controls from engine BH36402 onwards.

Maybe you don't need taper bars?

[YourivdA]

Your bike looks great Youri, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

On the handlebars, I've got an idea that late in the war Ariel were using universal handlebars and fittings - these appear in the Orchard/Madden book if I recall correctly, and in a 1944 parts list I have showing standard controls from engine BH36402 onwards.

Maybe you don't need taper bars?

Thank you Simon! I really enjoy your blog by the way. I actually took quite some info from it before taking off my primary chaincase, it was very helpfull!

The yoke fitted on the girder fork is made to fit a 1 inch bar. The clamps on top are defintly not original or time correct in any case, but they are 22mm so 7/8 inch. So I filled up the gap in the yoke with two pieces of copper, made from regular copper pipe, that way I was able to clamp the bars properly without them turning. Ofcourse as a temporary fix untill I find a proper handlebar.

Originally I think this bike was fitted with the rubber mountings. But through it's life those must have been changed out for the top yoke without the rubber mount.

[nevhunter]

You are better off without the Rubber type Mounting. They frequently slip. The later bars have a split section between the Clamps, The Webmaster John Nash Had some made with the Bars way back. The tapered ones would be Hard to replicate. The Primary covers are not polished originally and are Painted. The original gearbox ratiios are trials type with a big jump to top gear. AS has been said later they used common parts across makes. Seats, handle bars. Is you headlight the right size? The glass should be flat. Remove the Oil tank and clean it out thoroughly. Grease the speedo drive gears and make sure they mesh fully. All that is EXPENSIVE so look after it. I've had 3 of them and I've done about 18.000 miles on one like yours. Nev

[YourivdA]

You are better off without the Rubber type Mounting. They frequently slip. The later bars have a split section between the Clamps, The Webmaster John Nash Had some made with the Bars way back. The tapered ones would be Hard to replicate. The Primary covers are not polished originally and are Painted. The original gearbox ratiios are trials type with a big jump to top gear. AS has been said later they used common parts across makes. Seats, handle bars. Is you headlight the right size? The glass should be flat. Remove the Oil tank and clean it out thoroughly. Grease the speedo drive gears and make sure they mesh fully. All that is EXPENSIVE so look after it. I've had 3 of them and I've done about 18.000 miles on one like yours. Nev

Thanks for your reply Nev! Good tips!

I've put on a new primairy case, bought at Draganfly. Unpolished raw cast aluminium. I've not painted them, yet.

I don't know about the size of the headlight. I'll look into that. I'm already looking for a new glass, probably better to make sure the headlight is the right size then. Quick look makes me wonder if it's ain't to small. Edit: I quickly measured the headlight, it seems to be 17,5cm (7Inch) so that's indeed not the right headlight

I have cleaned out the oil tank recently, the flow is very good now. I will grease the speedo drive, I remember it being dry.

[Pete.Silson]

I used a bit of 25mm brass tube with 1.5mm wall thickness cut with a hacksaw. The attached picture is of these on a late war WNG yoke and they work very effectively.

[JohnnyBeckett]

hi, and welcome to the forum and a nice looking Ariel and enjoy it

[YourivdA]

I used a bit of 25mm brass tube with 1.5mm wall thickness cut with a hacksaw. The attached picture is of these on a late war WNG yoke and they work very effectively.

That looks great. I'm going to look into that, thank you!

[YourivdA]

hi, and welcome to the forum and a nice looking Ariel and enjoy it

Thank you Johnny!

[YourivdA]

You are better off without the Rubber type Mounting. They frequently slip. The later bars have a split section between the Clamps, The Webmaster John Nash Had some made with the Bars way back. The tapered ones would be Hard to replicate. The Primary covers are not polished originally and are Painted. The original gearbox ratiios are trials type with a big jump to top gear. AS has been said later they used common parts across makes. Seats, handle bars. Is you headlight the right size? The glass should be flat. Remove the Oil tank and clean it out thoroughly. Grease the speedo drive gears and make sure they mesh fully. All that is EXPENSIVE so look after it. I've had 3 of them and I've done about 18.000 miles on one like yours. Nev

I tried to grease the speedo drive, but it seems impossible to get any grease into it. I took the wheel out and checked it, wasn't much to see and it seems to work fine. Turns quite smooth. I tried to push in the valve in the grease nipple with a tiny sharp metal piece, that seems to move properly. Any tips on that?