Splitting From the Atom

SPLITTING FROM THE ATOM

ROUNDUP

OF OLD-TIME ENGLISH motor-manufacturing revivals, count Ariel among the few that have made it as a viable commercial operation. In this case, the foundation of success was the universally lauded lightweight super car, the Atom. Open-wheeled, Honda (car)powered and trellis-framed, the Atom redefined performance and toppled giants.

But company owner and director Simon Saunders is also a bike nut, counting a Kawasaki ZX-9R and a Harley-Davidson police model among his fleet. And as a budding industrial designer, he went to work with Norton, but that was unfortunately during the dark final days of the company in the mid-1970s.

Nonetheless, he carried on primarily in car design (Aston Martin, GM/Vauxhall, Porsche 959) but never lost interest in two wheels. When he was looking to start his own company building vehicles in the late ’90s, the choice seemed obvious: “We looked at other names, but Ariel fit because it’d done cars, bikes, threewheelers, so it covered what we were interested in. We revived everything in 1999 with the Atom, partly because we didn’t want to see yet another name die out and gradually be forgotten. We thought Ariel represented what used to be the best in British industry: innovation, performance, style.”

What form would a new Ariel motorcycle take? It wouldn't be hard to imagine an Atom-like machine with a trellis frame and Honda power, but “that just isn’t enough now,” declares Saunders.

He and his Sommersetbased team at Ariel (all riders, he says) have considered the historically significant square-Four engine layout used by Ariel up to the late-Fifties, but he admits there are probably a lot of technical reasons not to build such a powerplant. “We also don’t want to build a retro bike,” he says. “We are generally quite interested in running the other way. If everyone is going to multis, we might go to a Single.

Architecturally, it would fit, and there is a historical connection between British bikes and the Single.”

A supercharger was naturally on the short list of possibilities, but the crew is still working on the fundamental concepts. They have considered non-gasoline forms of power, but given the excellent reputation of the Atom for performance and reliability, technologies that aren’t fully developed will not be applied to the two-wheeler.

Although there is no doubt that performance, preferably giant-killing, will be paramount, utility will also be a powerful focus.

“One of the things that annoys me as a motorcyclist

is that a lot of bikes are useless,” he declares. “I want a fast bike, but sportbikes are uncomfortable and what can you carry with you?”

So the goal is a bike that is fast, handles, is comfortable and able to “cruise,” likely with some degree of ergonomic adaptability inherent to the design. And perhaps a convenient place to put a gallon of milk, loaf of bread and your laptop computer.

Saunders admits that bringing the Atom concept to two wheels will be more difficult than it was with the car, but ultimately building a better

machine than the big bikemakers is the target. “But we need to define ‘better,’” he says. “A Hayabusa can go close to 200 mph, but it seems irrelevant to go 250 mph.”

Based on the Atom, the dynamic properties of a modern Ariel motorcycle are bound to be thrilling. Judging by the initial sketches and renderings, the styling won’t be boring, either. Saunders added they wouldn’t have anything ready to show for a year.

Toppling giants is a tall order, but they’ve done it once, and Ariel seems to be looking for a rematch. -Mark Hover