Ariel HT... Factory Build...

Gordon Jackson, riding Ron Langston's Ariel HT 3...

At Colmore Re-visit event...

Details of this Ariel below.

2020... June.

At the workshop we are just commencing with a re build of a Genuine    Ariel HT3, and we are going to put everything back as it should be as it left the factory...(Except for the fork shrouds, and replacing the half-side front hub with a full-width 7" alloy hub the same as fitted to the HT5)...

We are lucky in the fact that we have a bike to check that we do the job right.

So the frame is off to be enamelled back to Black "has new".

Then we start from there.

This little video from John Bartram shows you what a Genuine 

Ariel HT frame looks like...

John Bartram says in the video that the Ernie Smith and Clive Bennett designed frame was and are Arc welded, Well the prototype frame was ark welded,

 but although some of the components to the frame, like the swinging arm box are arc or steel gas welded, in the words of Don Morley ( from the bible) production frames were Brazed, not strictly true? They were bronze welded!

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The bike is stripped and the frame is ready to go to the enamellers.

Does this look like the real thing?

Saddle spring brackets...

BSA Steering head and no holes in the reinforcing plates...

Swinging arm box...

Better shot of the swinging arm box...

One bit of a design after thought or compromise, was the rectangle hole cut in the swinging arm box  so that the case of the redesigned Burman GB47 gearbox covers did not foul the box...

And look at the rear engine mounting, a lot stronger than the front single bolt fixing.

 This was one of the first modifications on a lot of copy frames, and Sammy Miller  did it first on GOV132, and that was to add another through tube on the front down tube for a second bolt to stop the engine plates chaffing.. When alloy plates are replacing the steel original this situation seems to be worse...

Gusset plates and saddle brackets.

Swinging arm and rear hub...

Ariel "Factory" HT swinging arm...

 These arms are a bit like hens-teeth there are not a lot of genuine HT arms left.

Don't forget there were not that many Ariel HT's built in the first place in the factory.

 And as soon as the copy frames started to appear one of the first items to look for was a HT swinging arm.

I have just welded up a right rusty arm and had to make new replica suspension mounts and adjusters... Because these were rusted away...

This is a Factory HT arm, I have converted the Red Hunter (full width drum type) arm to be the same as this but it is not that simple a job...

 But has I say, you would be lucky to drop on a Genuine HT arm today... In any condition...

Take a look at the page above this one to see a arm I converted from a Red Hunter one...Or It is here now for you..As  you can see from the encircled section, to convert a Red Hunter arm the one with the full width alloy hub, you have to braze in a oblong section of steel the same thickness as the wheel plate on the arm, or thicker, and then dress it down when you have drilled the hole in the front of the slot and cut that same slot out... Tricky bit of work but works well.

 On the opposite side you just have to cut the back out of the oval and make it into a open ended slot like this side. If there is a gap at the end after doing this just fill it in with your bronze rod, and dress..

The front spindle pivot tube needs reducing in width as is the genuine arm above this one, also the Metalastic bush will have to be knocked into the tube the depth of the threaded stub on the swinging arm box. On the converted arm this will mean the spindle spacer tube in the arm will have to be reduced in size the depth of the threaded stub, that is if there is still one in there? If not you will need to make one up to space the Metalastic bushes, as these may vary in length.  You should now be able to get this arm into the swinging arm box at an angle, if it is difficult, I have just taken a notch out of the bottom of the protruding tube....

Insistently Drag-an-Fly now have the Metalastic bushes in stock so they tell me.

 Had another batch made...

Reinforcing plates with hole and spacers for the air-cleaner box...

And saddle front mounting...

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Here is one of the Ariel HT frames in the powder coaters oven, and now back with us for the build up is 2023...

This is the John Bartram copy frame of the original HT...

He says in the video that the steering head angle is two degrees steeper, which would make it 65 as the factory frame is 63.....

 I still have this bike to assemble too.

The "Lairds "Ariel HT5...

So this is what we are setting out to achieve with the rebuild.

A bike rebuilt to Factory condition....

This one was put into this condition by Deryk Wylde...

Note: This still has the 19" rear wheel fitted, as will the bikes we are building...

Banbury NOBAC stalwart Roy (Vic) Steel bought a Ariel HT3 from new, and from the factory, I loved that bike, and had the privilege at a tender age to ride the bike practising on our land at week ends, most that is, when there was not a local trial...

Sunday Morning was club member gathering time at Wigginton...Oxfordshire...

 You can read one of my escapades on the bike at the bottom of the listings...

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   11/10/2020...

We are now building another factory build with a HT 500 engine,                   as another genuine factory frame came to light...

This is the bike bought in the year 2000, that started us back onto Classic British Trials bikes...

 The bike was in factory build except for being fitted with an eighteen inch back rim and tyre and the top suspension mounts being moved up to lower the suspension...

Why? Well the machine had been used for hill climbing after it had been dumped as an out a fashion trials bike in the sixties.

How time has changed that situation...

I blame Deryk...

Photo April 2011...

Going out for a ride on the "Classic Trials Bikes"...

Brother aboard the "Lairds" Ariel HT5, and me on the 1952 "Jampot Matchless".

Hope to do the same next year! on the newly "Factory-iesed",

 Ariel HT's...

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This is Gordon Jackson warming up Ron Langston's  ex works Ariel HT3...

It has been stated that the modifications to this factory bike were done there at the Ariel /BSA comp department, when the bike was new.

Without speaking to Ron I would not know if this is true...

But you can see that the large full width front hub has been replaced with an Ariel Leader alloy smaller unit, although the production HT3's were fitted with the

Ariel single sided (Half Hub) 7" steel hub...Roger from Drag-an-Fly tells me... although I have seen the 7" BSA version fitted on some bikes the Ariel hub (4001-49) had the fulcrum adjuster and was better made than the BSA unit... 

Other modifications are the mid mounted small steel oil-tank. This was necessary because the bike was also fitted with a BSA C15T type high level exhaust, and the silencer sits where the oil-tank would have been.

 Then the air cleaner had to be replaced from the Burgess type unit fitted to the Ariel HT production bikes, as this would not fit over the central oil-tank..

Other than that the machine is very much the same as the HT3's that left the factory... And don't forget, there were only 38-40 of these 346 cc machines made.

Big brother HT5 sold in total 400 units...

 More later this will be a full page...

More Later...

Updt2024...03...