Rally Vintage Modern Bikes Commercial Tractors
About 40 motorcycles at the rally ranged in ages from bikes built in the 1920's to modern classics built in the 1970's.
This Ariel Huntmaster with its 650cc twin cylinder engine was built in about 1957 and had a reputed top speed of 100mph. Ariel was one of the most important companies in the history of motorcycle development. Starting off in 1847 making carriage wheels they invented the wire spoke wheel seen on all these old bikes and also the rear wheel chain drive when they produced the first bicycle. They then added engines and produced motorised bicycles, tricycles and quadracycles. The name Ariel name, incidentally, came from a fairy in Shakespeare's Tempest. The company was later taken over by BSA.
This was the New Imperial 36 when it was built in 1936. It has the old style bicycle saddle for the rider and a minimal seat for the pillion mounted over the rear mudguard. New Imperial like Ariel started off in Birmingham's bicycle manufactories and only produced parts but then increased to produce bicycles. Their bikes always looked to new technologies and won several TT's up to 1936.
One of the oldest bikes at the vintage rally was this Rover NG which was built in 1925 and restored in the 1950's. Rover was the name of the first bicycle created by James Starley from Ariel and the company was created for their manufacture.
Painted in its original military green this Matchless was built for service during the second world war in 1941. It is a 350cc model WDG3L and was sold as war surplus in 1960.
A name not often seen here is this Simsom as these were produced in the former East Germany.It is a two-stoke 50cc model the S51 Enduro with a four speed gearbox.
links: New Imperial Owners Club