Ariels Down Under!
I very much enjoyed the series of articles by Neil Cairns, A C11 Autumn, in OBM. I was tickled, too, when subsequent readers’ letters reminisced about the contemporary books, Motor Cycles And How To Manage Them ,and Speed And How To Obtain It, that were so much a part of the period. I certainly read them avidly as a youth. For the sake of completeness, I think there are two other books of the same ilk that should rate a mention. They are John Surtees on racing and Jeff Smith on scrambling. I have kept my copies, and still occasionally dip into them.
Neil’s recounting of his mate’s adventures on an Ariel Colt also stirred memories. I bought one from a bike shop in Melbourne (Australia) for £35 in 1963, just as I turned 17 years and nine months and could get a motorcycle learner permit. It was always going to be a disaster
– a youth with a lust for speed and a 200cc British motorcycle.
Sure enough, one cold and windy night I put the conrod through the crankcase and that, for the time being, was that.
However, a couple of months later, I saw a C11 engine advertised for £5 that fitted straight in. The top photo is of me and the C11-engined Colt in my parents' garage, with chaos all around. Note the megaphone. I can’t remember what happened to the Colt in the end; probably a memory repressed by guilt. I have, though, kept up a fondness for Ariels and a few years ago completed the fullblown restoration of a 1951 VH Red Hunter. It now sits in my shed and looks at me. I haven’t told it about the Colt. We really should both get out more.
Lawrie Bradly Melbourne, Victoria, Australia