Ariel Motorcycles
Who is Jack Sangster?
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Ariel Motorcycles, while never a stunning success itself, built a few memorable bikes, including the legendary Ariel Square Four, albeit it in fairly low numbers. Its was a story like so many other classic British motorcycle makers, with one enormous difference: Jack Sangster. Sangster gained entry into the British motorcycle industry through his father’s purchase of the ailing Ariel Cycle Co., climbed to the absolute pinnacle of that industry, then ended up, perhaps more than any other single person, gutting and destroying it. Hence, the following is as much a study of Ariel Motorcycles as it is an inditement of Sangster’s role in the ultimate demise of not just Ariel, but BSA, Triumph, and whatever was left of the British motorcycle industry by 1970. The Early Days at Ariel MotorcyclesLike so many other classic British motorcycle companies of the era, Ariel started out as a bicycle manufacturer, or, more precisely, they built the wire-spoked wheels for bicycles under the first such patent issued in England, under the name Ariel Cycle Co. |
 As chairman of the board at BSA, Jack Sangster oversaw the stripping and selling-off of BSA’s wealth, talent and assets. By the time he retired in 1961, BSA was too shaky to face the coming challenge from Japan. |
Established in England in 1870 by James Starley and William Hillman, they were soon building entire bicycles and also sewing machines. But the bicycles of the era were the type with the huge front wheel and tiny back wheel, with the pedals on the front axle. In 1885, Starley’s nephew, John Kemp Starley, invented the first ‘modern’ bicycle with two similar-sized wheels and a chain driving the rear wheel, essentially what we use today. Ariel was the first! By 1898, they were shoe-horning engines into things, their first attempt being a tricycle with a 2 1/4 hp De Dion engine. It took until 1902 for Ariel to build its first true motorcycle, using an engine purchased from an engine manufacturer, a very common practice among early motorcycle builders. In this case, the Kerry engine was very innovative for the era, with a new-for-the-times magneto and a carburetor with a float.
This 1908 Ariel 3hp shows just how early Ariel got into the motorcycle game. Note the bicycle pedals and bicycle-style 'diamond' frame.
Sangster Takes Over Ariel Motorcycles
That same year, Ariel Motorcycles, still a very small company, was taken over by Components Ltd, which was owned by Charles Sangster. He immediately set to building a 2-stroke motorcycle with a 3-speed gearbox which he named the ‘Arielette’. Production ceased with the outbreak of World War I. In 1918, Sangster’s son, Jack, took over management of the Ariel division of Components Ltd and oversaw the introduction of a new bike using a White and Poppe 4-stroke engine that proved successful. He quickly expanded Ariel’s model lineup with bikes ranging in size from 586cc to 992cc, using outsourced engines. Starting in 1926, Ariel began designing and building its own engines. The younger Sangster had lured legendary engine designer Val Page away from JAP, and the results were immediate. Page created two new engines and one entire motorcycle by 1927. This basic engine design, introduced in the 1926−1930 Black Ariel was the basis for nearly every Ariel 4-stroke single-cylinder engine from then on. Its slogan around this time was ‘The Modern Motor Cycle’.
Early Ariel Square Fours featured Edward Turner-designed 500cc and 600cc OHC engines. Complexity and cooling problems led to a switch over to the 1000cc OHV engine in 1937. This is a 1932 <A href='ariel-square-four.html'>Ariel Square Four</a> with OHC 600 engine.
The Ariel Square Four
Ariel Motorcycles, while never a stunning success itself, built a few memorable bikes, including the legendary Ariel Square Four, albeit it in fairly low numbers. Its was a story like so many other classic British motorcycle makers, with one enormous difference: Jack Sangster. Sangster gained entry into the British motorcycle industry through his father’s purchase of the ailing Ariel Cycle Co., climbed to the absolute pinnacle of that industry, then ended up, perhaps more than any other single person, gutting and destroying it. Hence, the following is as much a study of Ariel Motorcycles as it is an inditement of Sangster’s role in the ultimate demise of not just Ariel, but BSA, Triumph, and whatever was left of the British motorcycle industry by 1970.
The Square Four was completely redesigned in 1937 as an all-aluminium OHV 1000cc four-cylinder. This is a 1958 Ariel Square Four, one year from extinction.
Sangster Buys Triumph for a Song
In 1936, Triumph Motorcycles, also on hard times financially, in the midst of the Great Depression, went into receivership and Jack Sangster bought this legendary brand for a mere 50,000 pounds. Now he owned two motorcycle companies. He brought young Turner over from Ariel to help juice up Triumph’s ailing motorcycle lineup. Turner wasted no time, completely designing, producing and introducing the game-changing 500cc 5T Speed Twin by 1937, as a 1938 model. It was a game-changer: the world’s first vertical twin of its type, and it set the pattern for nearly every British twin for the next 40 years.
This 1958 Ariel Square Four shows the beauty of this massive engine. Their counter-rotating crankshafts made them incredibly smooth and torquey. However, their head design doomed them to touring duty, because they weren’t very fast.
The Ariel Red Hunter is Born
Val Page had designed a new single-cylinder engine which was introduced in 1932 as the Ariel Red Hunter, a name and a bike that would stay in production until 1959. During this time it was available in 250, 350 and 500cc displacements. They performed brilliantly and sold very well, becoming Ariel’s strongest product. The income derived from Red Hunter sales allowed Sangster to buy Triumph. Like everyone else, Ariel ceased civilian production with the outbreak of World War II, to build boatloads of W/NG 350 military bikes, which featured added ground clearance, among other upgrades. After the war, Ariel went back to making Square Fours and Red Hunters.
Ariel’s Red Hunter 500 single was by far their biggest seller. This is a 500cc 1947 Red Hunter.
Sangster Sells Ariel Motorcycles & Triumph to BSA
In 1944, Sangster sold Ariel to BSA. After the war, Triumph was doing so well in the growing motorcycle market, and the new all-important US export market, that Sangster sold Triumph to BSA for 2.5 million pounds, a tidy return on his 50,000-pound investment. BSA was not only the world’s largest and richest motorcycle company at the time; it was one of the largest companies of any kind. BSA was a true multi-national corporate giant. It built not only motorcycles, but also cars, buses, trucks, military vehicles, industrial, construction, agricultural and mining equipment, armaments, munitions, steel and more. Its steel mills were considered state-of-the-art at the time, and their metallurgists were among the world's best. It seemed the company could do or accomplish anything. BSA was flush with cash, credit, resources, manpower, brainpower and had vast market reach. So, Sangster smartly made his installation onto BSA’s board of directors part of the
Triumph deal. If BSA wanted Triumph, Jack Sangster had to come along as part of the package.
Ariel got into the vertical twin business with bikes like this 650cc 1958 Ariel Cyclone. Buddy Holly owned one.
Ariel Product Development
After the war, under BSA’s tutelage, Ariel continued along, producing low numbers of the Square Four and high volumes of Red Hunter singles. The Square Four was never a great performing bike. It was heavy, the rear cylinders still tended to run hot even after several design upgrades, the valves were all situated vertically, car-style rather than angled like more modern designs, and all four cylinders were fed by one single carburetor, with a long and tortuous intake tract, which restricted airflow. All of these factors combined severely limited the Square Four's maximum performance potential. Not to mention those two heavy crankshafts. However, they were very smooth and provided excellent low-end torque, which made them ideal for sidecar duty.
The Red Hunter, on the other hand, was fast and sold well through the 1940 and 50s, until big singles all began to fade from glory with the advent of the vertical twin, and a decade later by the lightweight 2-stroke. With BSA’s help, Ariel came out with its own vertical twin, the 500cc Model KH, and the 650cc Huntmaster, both with engines based on the BSA A10. Badge-engineering had arrived at Ariel. Typical of Ariel Motorcycles overall, the new twins were well designed and well built and pretty fast. The Huntmaster was capable of 100mph in the early 1950s, a fact that still didn’t bring in the much-needed sales the company was hoping for. Even the famous Square Four was a slow-seller, totalling just 15,639 units over its entire 28-year lifespan (1931−1959), an average of just 558 bikes per year!
This shot of a 1956 Ariel Square Four engine with its valve cover removed shows the basic cylinder-head layout. Here you can see the eight vertical valves, easier for production, but not conducive to high performance. All the pushrods come up between the front and back row of cylinders, and the whole thing is fed by a single carburetor breathing through a long intake port running down the middle of the head. They were smooth, and torquey but they weren’t fast.
Misreading the Market
After the war, under BSA’s tutelage, Ariel continued along, producing low numbers of the Square Four and high volumes of Red Hunter singles. The Square Four was never a great performing bike. It was heavy, the rear cylinders still tended to run hot even after several design upgrades, the valves were all situated vertically, car-style rather than angled like more modern designs, and all four cylinders were fed by one single carburetor, with a long and tortuous intake tract, which restricted airflow. All of these factors combined severely limited the Square Four's maximum performance potential. Not to mention those two heavy crankshafts. However, they were very smooth and provided excellent low-end torque, which made them ideal for sidecar duty.
The Red Hunter, on the other hand, was fast and sold well through the 1940 and 50s, until big singles all began to fade from glory with the advent of the vertical twin, and a decade later by the lightweight 2-stroke. With BSA’s help, Ariel came out with its own vertical twin, the 500cc Model KH, and the 650cc Huntmaster, both with engines based on the BSA A10. Badge-engineering had arrived at Ariel. Typical of Ariel Motorcycles overall, the new twins were well designed and well built and pretty fast. The Huntmaster was capable of 100mph in the early 1950s, a fact that still didn’t bring in the much-needed sales the company was hoping for. Even the famous Square Four was a slow-seller, totalling just 15,639 units over its entire 28-year lifespan (1931−1959), an average of just 558 bikes per year!
Ariel thought this bike was the future. Admittedly, this 1960 Ariel Leader made an attractive package.
Sangster Cashes in BSA's Chips
But, what of Jack Sangster? Following a series of boardroom battles, and plenty of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Sangster succeeded in ousting BSA’s chairman of the board, Sir Bernard Docker, in 1956. He installed himself as the new chairman, and over the next several years, presided over the stripping and selling-off of the BSA industrial empire. Factories, research centers, steel mills and valuable contracts were all sold off, making BSA weaker by the year. Of course, the 1950s were the best of times for the two biggest players in the British motorcycle biz: BSA (which included BSA, Triumph, Ariel and Sunbeam) and AMC (who built Matchless, AJS, Norton, James and Francis-Barnett), so no one seemed to notice or mind. However, by the time Jack Sangster retired from the board of BSA in 1961, this once mighty industrial powerhouse was weak, broke, behind the market technologically and clueless as to what to do about it. Where did all the money go? Certainly not back into the company, from the sale of all its assets. Jack Sangster likely did well, but he left BSA crippled beyond repair. They had been the strongest player in the marketplace, perhaps the only one strong enough to stand up to the upcoming Japanese invasion in their pre-Sangster condition. Mainly because BSA owned Triumph, and Triumph was enjoying great success, especially in America, right up to about 1970. But that’s another story. If BSA would have remained strong and would have kept the brainpower that it had (many of its best people left the company in disgust during those years), it could have embraced and leveraged Triumph’s US success and poured the much-needed funds into a new line of modern engines, more like what the Japanese were building. Of course, this never happened. BSA entered the 1960s broke and riding on Triumph’s success. BSA even tried to team up with the former AMC empire in 1972 to form a new company, Norton-Villiers-Triumph, but even that couldn’t save it, or Ariel, or the British motorcycle industry as a whole.
Ariel Motorcycles - Models
Ariel Square Four
Ariel Twin-Cylinder Motorcycles
Ariel Motorcycle Books
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