Book Review
BOOK REVIEW
THE ARIEL STORY
By Peter Hartley Argus Publishing Co. Motorsports 6115 Gravois St.
St. Louis, Mo. 63116 $20.95 plus 75c handling
For a change we now have a book on Ariel motorcycles as a break from the flood of BS material coming across the pond. This one is a largish paperback with 316 pp of small print and pix by Peter Hartley, who has been responsible not only for a couple of books on Bookstands days but is the son of Laurence Hartley, the Ariel tuner of his time. Not too many folks have even heard of Ariel's apart from the celebrated Square Four but they made some pretty interesting bikes in their day, such as the stylish Red Hunter Singles, and shared in the golden years between the wars along with BSA, Triumph and others which didn’t necessarily race much but concentrated on reliability trials (see Enduros), sprints and hillclimbs as more suited for high-class transportation machinery. There the marque was very successful and in fact Sammy Miller built his observed trials reputation on one.
So. The book start out with a couple of absorbing chapters on how Ariels got started with penny-farthing velocipedes (would you believe a sidesaddle highwheeler?) and the early days of motoring; every one of these books unearths a few more interesting facts that round out the motorcyclist’s education! The middle tends to get a bit draggy what with the proliferation of models and competition successes thereof but if you are interested in.that sort of thing as I am, you are interested in that sort of thing and Mr.Hartley does a manful job of trying to keep the reader interested. He does write well. Coming into more modern periods, he delineates in a quite oblique manner the rot that started the British motorcycling industry as a whole on the road to perdition and interested readers will note a few quite familiar names involved in this process. Postwar, he shows clearly how BSA’s acquisition of the company (actually the first ties were well pre-Hitler war) effectually sent Ariel to the knackers, the coup de grace being partly due to Edward Turner’s desire that the BSA be the biggest and best. Also see why Sammy Miller switched to Bultaco . ..
There are a couple of interesting chapters at the end about the life and times, not to mention exploits, of Laurence Hartley as well as not a few handy hints that should interest owners of four-stroke thumpers, long may they wave. Also fitted are an index as well as appendices on engine and frame numbers so you can tell what that rusty heap of junk is, tables on valve and ignition timings, bless him, and information on owners’ clubs so that you won’t have to write Mr. Hartley.
A nice book and not a quick read, either.
—Henry N. Manney III
