Hairy Holes

For a change I decided to do some work on the bikes today. I have an early 1950s Ariel VH 500 which I bought a fair few years ago in a proper state. It was cheap tho. Since then its had various parts loosely attached to it, mainly to try to get a V5C for the bike with the original registration, which was successful.

I was thinking about part ex-ing it with a mate who is building another Ariel, but common sense went out of the window and I've decided to get busy and do it myself.

 This is how it looked at the start - not Selly Oaks finest. Its actually a 500cc single engine in a twin frame, hence the odd looking engine plates (odd if you know Ariels anyway...)

And after an afternoon of spannering:-

 

And finally:-

 

Its now all in boxes - the trick is to get on with it and not leave it in boxes for the next five years. Glad I bought an air impact gun - made removing those seized and tricky nuts a doddle.

What I have in mind for it is something like this:-

Gonna be tele forks not girders but I reckon I have the makings of a pretty nice bobber in my garage. And when I get bored with that I can convert it back to standard.

Some of the other residents of my garage were wheeled out into the sun so I had space to work.

1938 Ariel 500 Red Hunter in the foreground. Its still got the 1950s VB stealth tank on it which I fitted `temporarily' while I painted the original panel tank, which of course I haven't finished yet. To be honest I quite like it like that. 1954 Velocette in the background.

My first Ariel, bought in 1996 or 97. A 1928 Model D - 500cc OHV engine, 3 speed Burman gearbox, hand change, total loss oiling system. Gonna be nice if I ever finish it (the engine is fairly complete but I haven't done anything to it for a while).



Things

Been busy again.

Went up to Teesside to see my Mother. Had a day out in York while we were there. Ain't been to York for 30-odd years.

The wimmin went into the Minster:-

But I couldn't be arsed with that so I had tea and cake here:-

 

Then I went for a walk through one of the gated streets:-

 

 

And bought this in a funky record shop I found:-

 

 

 

On the Sunday we went to Seaham to see a new monument to the survivors of WW1. Its an all welded Tommy and while it don't look too big from the road, its a good 12-15ft high when you get up close and theres some great detail:-

 

Along with rebooting my Northerness I also restocked in brown beer while I was there:-



Fun and games continues with the VW. The shagged rear wheel bearings I found turned out to be fine, but I had them out and washed and regreased ready for reassembly:-

Of course I snapped a brakeline taking it all apart so I made a new one:-

The other inhabitants of my garage:-