The British motorcycle Ariel Ace is returning to the street. If you watch the BBC version of Top Gear very often you have most likely seen a segment on or heard a discussion around the Ariel track day cars, the host are very keen on the Ariel car.
Ariel is an old name in motorcycling. When they started in 1870 with bicycles they produced their first motorcycle in 1902. They held on until 1951 when BSA bought the brand which continued under BSA until 1967. Like Indian Motorcycles the Ariel name has come and gone a few time until it has reached the current car building company of today. The most famous of the Ariel motorcycles is their “Square 4”, one of which was recently restored on the History Channel’s American Restoration show.
But, until I ran across the fact that they are going to produce motorcycles, I had never connected that the Ariel car company was the namesake of the old Ariel motorcycle manufacturer. According to what I have read this new Ariel bike should pretty hot, it is using the Honda VFR1200 engine. It is not a great surprise because they use Honda engines in their cars as well. With the use of the VFR engine we should expect some nice number once the production machines come out in 2015.
Those production numbers for 2015 look a bit slim, based on reports. It appears that they will be only producing 100-150 bikes each year with prices starting at $36,000. If you want one of these new Ariel motorcycles you had better call them up and get on a list.
As far as appearance goes…. MEH…. Looks like another “naked” bike to me!
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 