Ariel Red Hunter
Ariel Red Hunter Background & History
The Red Hunter was Ariel’s biggest seller, and made enough money for the owner, Jack Sangster, to buy the Triumph brand, but that’s another story. It remained in production from 1932 through the 1959 model year. The Red Hunter was designed by genius Val Page who was chief designer at Ariel at the time. The undersquare (small bore, long stroke) OHV (overhead valve) air-cooled single was originally conceived in 1932 as a 500. But soon 250cc and 350cc versions were developed. If the Red Hunter was anything it was versatile. Built as off-road ‘enduros’, desert racers and street bikes, they sold well and performed well, and helped to establish Ariel’s reputation for building sturdy, reliable machines. In fact, as part of Ariel’s manufacturing process at their Dawlish Road factory, every engine was run non-stop for two hours as a bench test, to their record for reliability and quality control.
This 1947 Ariel Red Hunter is fitted with the standard rigid frame and sprung saddle.
Ariel Red Hunter Design
Early Ariel 500cc Red Hunters could accelerate from 0 to 60 in 10.9 seconds and stop from 25 mph in just 24 feet. Designer Edward Turner, the genius who created the vertical twin for Triumph, started at Ariel (before they bought Triumph) where he designed the first Ariel Square Four. He also made further improvements to the Ariel Red Hunter, adding chrome and focusing on the road touring market. He also oversaw the addition of telescopic front forks, rear suspension, and an alloy cylinder head as those technologies became available. Performance also improved. Champion Sammy Miller achieved great racing success on a 500cc Ariel Red Hunter during the 1955 racing season.
This 1947 Ariel Red Hunter is a great example of what most British singles looked like in 1947.
Val Page joined Ariel in 1925 after working under iconic builder of engines J.A. Prestwich at JAP who supplied many of Britain’s motorcycle makers with engines. While a JAP, Page designed the V-twin that would power the Brough Superior SS80 and SS100. These bikes were widely considered to be the ‘Rolls Royce of Motorcycles’. Page rose in Ariel’s ranks until he reached Chief Designer at Ariel with the goal of creating a new range of motorcycles which included the OHV single that would become the Ariel Red Hunter.
1947 Ariel Red Hunter 500cc engine, from the timing side. That diagonal aluminum cover hides a chain that drives the rear-mounted magdyno off of the crankshaft.
Edward Turner's Influence on the Ariel Red Hunter
In Page’s absence, Turner was promoted to Chief Designer at Ariel and he took a hard look at Ariels product lineup with the intent of reducing it’s offerings, focusing all resources on those remaining products and making them more appealing to buyers. He decided that the only single that Ariel would produce for the foreseeable future was the Val Page-designed OHV single that he helped on, in 500, 350 and 250cc displacements. That and Turner’s own Square Four were now Ariel’s only products. Turner really showed his flair for styling, which later spiced up Triumph’s product line, as he brought out Ariel Red Hunters and Square Fours with eye-popping paint jobs and lots of chrome. Perhaps Turner even came up with the name “Red Hunter”, conjuring images of fox hunting in the English countryside.
1947 Ariel Red Hunter 500cc engine, from the primary side.
Ariel Red Hunter Features
When the Ariel Red Hunter first launched in 1932, it featured a cast iron cylinder barrel and head and displaced 497cc with a 81.8mm bore and a 95mm stroke. Various improvements and enhancements were made to the Ariel Red Hunter year-by-year, and by the close of the 1930s the compression ratio had reached 7.5:1, power output was 26 hp at 5,800 rpm, the bike weighed 370 lbs and was capable of an 85 mph top speed. That was flying in 1939!
The Ariel Red Hunter was built to a variety of specifications. For off-road competition, they came equipped with an alloy ‘belly pan’ to protect the crankcase, competition tires, high clearance fenders, chain guard, a detachable rear wheel, and a special clutch with fabric instead of cork as the clutch plate friction material. The Lucas Magdyno (a combination of magneto for spark and dynamo for lights) was replaced with a BTH magneto. Special racing engines could be ordered from the factory that were fitted with a aluminum-bronze cylinder head. It is believed that only 10 were produced.
Ariel Red Hunter Goes to War
World War 2 broke out for England in 1939 and by 1940 all civilian production had ceased to focus all of England’s industrial might on the war effort. Ariel got a lucrative contract from the British Army for dispatch motorcycles. Designated Ariel W/NG, they were based on the 350cc version of the Ariel Red Hunter civilian bike, but with a trials frame and greater ground clearance. They came with panniers (saddle bags) and two tool boxes, along with black-out headlights.
This 1954 Ariel Red Hunter is obviously the street version.
Post War Ariel Red Hunters
At war’s end, Ariel, like the rest of the British motorcycle industry, dusted off it’s 1939 models and called the 1946s. The 1946 Ariel Red Hunter was essentially the same bike as the 1939. Edward Turner had moved over to the Triumph brand in 1937 to work on his masterpiece, the 500cc 1938 Triumph 5T Speed Twin, which introduced the world to the vertical twin. The rest of the industry (those who could afford it, anyway) scrambled to build their own vertical twins to keep up with Triumph. But World War 2 got in the way and it wasn’t until after the war that a whole new crop of British vertical twins was born. BSA was first with its 500cc A7 in 1946, then Ariel with its 500cc KH in 1948, then Matchless/AJS, Royal Enfield and Norton in 1949. Vertical twins were new, and they were red hot! So much of Ariel’s attention was lavished on their new line of twins which expanded quickly. That meant the Ariel Red Hunter and the slow-selling Square Four weren’t getting as much love from the company. And times were a-changin’, big undersquare 4-stroke singles were being eclipsed by those very vertical twins, and soon the Japanese would be coming with boatloads of cheap, reliable, high-quality motorcycles with blistering performance. The Ariel Red Hunter’s days were numbered.
This 1957 Ariel Red Hunter shows how handsome they could be as a street bike.
Ariel Red Hunter Improvements Lead to Race Victories
Postwar Ariel Red Hunters ditched the archaic girder front forks in favor of modern telescopic forks. The postwar rigid frame (no rear suspension) continued as standard after the war, but starting in 1947 the Austere Link plunger-type rear suspension became available as an option. The swing arm frame wouldn’t arrive until 1954, the same year that the 350 and 500cc Ariel Red Hunter VH came equipped with an alloy cylinder head, along with full-width alloy hubs front and back.
Ariel Red Hunters were winning races throughout the 1950s. Sammy Miller banked up many wins places like the Ulster Grand Prix and the Scottish Six Day Trial. These racing successes continued right up until the dissolution of Ariel Motorcycles as a viable corporate entity. BSA shut them down officially in 1964.
Ariel Red Hunter Books
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"Book of Ariel, All Pre-war Models, 1932-1939" By W C Haycraft, a Floyd Clymer Book, 182 pages Illustrated, includes technical data, repair & maintenance info. |
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