West Cumbria Vintage Rally 2006

Rally  Vintage   Modern   Bikes   Commercial   Tractors

Motorcycle Section

About 40 motorcycles at the rally ranged in ages from bikes built in the 1920's to modern classics built in the 1970's.

Ariel Huntmaster motorbike in black

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.

New Imperial 36 motorbike

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.

Old Rover NG motorbike

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.

Matchless WDG3L in military green

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.

Simsom S51 Enduro

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

 

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