STOPPING A SQUARE

After reading the article by Stuart Francis on his Ariel Square Four in RC201, I am sure that I recognise him from the dim and distant past. The article brought back fond memories of going over to Holt in the hope of persuading Tuck to part with various must-have motorcycle nuggets.

I have the very same Ariel / BSA wheel on my bike, but the Square Four is such a lump that no matter what I did to improve the front brake I was never 100% happy I could stop quickly enough. I converted it to a twin leader, but without much noticeable improvement. I wanted to retain my own Ariel hub as I had lined and laced on 18” rims to fit wider K70 tyres to help cope with the Devon dual carriageways and potholes. A friend of mine who is a whiz with his lathe made me up a carrier to hold a hydraulic twin-leading brake plate taken from a late Mini Cooper which uses the same size shoes. This gave the bike an excellent but easily reversible hydraulic front brake conversion, as seen in the photos.

It’s the best front brake solution I have come up with for an Ariel hub, although I am not claiming it as a completely original thought. I think the idea came to me from a dimly-remembered Square Four outfit I saw many years ago.

Keep up the good work. It was nice to see Geoff Stray has finally made the big time motorcycle press also in RC201, now all his hopes, idea bouncing and metal fettling efforts have paid off. It was great to see the Stray Cat strut its stuff at the Panther OC socially-distanced gathering last year. A great achievement by Geoff which helps keep the mighty POC profile up there on high – where we belong!

Dave Beacham, member

Many years ago now, I rode an Ariel outfit with a 2ls hydraulic brake conversion, loaned to me by an Ariel OC member whose name I have of course forgotten. It worked very well, too.

Frank W