ALMOST AN ARROW

If you’ve got £3000 to spend then you can definitely afford an Ariel Leader – check out the bikes in stock at Andybuysbikes.com and you may still find a rather smart, black over white, just-add-petrol 1961 edition up for grabs at £2650.

Not everyone appreciates the fully-faired appearance of Val Page’s radical twincylinder two-stroke however, which is why the stripped-back Arrow typically costs 25% more. Genuine examples of the really rather rare (and deliciously tempting, it has to be said) Golden Arrow can cost twice as much as a Leader – nearly double our budget. Ouch.

But that brings us to the machine pictured here, which started life as a Leader and over time lost its bulky bodywork, becoming almost-an-arrow. As you can see, it’s retained the handsomely flared front mudguard and the seller included the original panniers in the deal. He described it as ‘a delight to ride… gets to 60mph quite quickly and if coaxed will go to 70.’ It’s been in regular use recently and, although it’s far from standard or original, ‘is a very useable fun bike.’