Some classic bikes

[bunker]

I was at a 40th birthday party on Saturday night (sans kids :woohoo: ) at my in laws place in Sanquhar; every year some friends of my father in law organise a small classic car show in the town square. As usual some old bikes turned up as well, so i took a couple of snaps whilst the wife was recovering :sick: :sick:

A Panther

04092011837.jpg (80.45 KiB) Viewed 1059 times

An Ariel square four

04092011838.jpg (82.22 KiB) Viewed 1059 times

A Velocette (iirc) and a '68 Thunderbird

04092011836.jpg (80.7 KiB) Viewed 1059 times

[GB]

Ariel yes, square four no.

[Richard Simpson]

Nice pics: the Ariel is a Arrow: 250cc 2-stroke twin. Had spiral baffles which meant it blew smoke rings when it started up.

Ariel Square 4 was a 1000cc four-stroke four, with an engine that looked a bit like two Triumph twins: one in front of t'other. The same engine was later used in the 1000cc Healey; launched in 1971 as a British superbike and in performance terms really not that far behind the Triumph/BSA 750 triples and the Honda 750/4.

[GB]

Had spiral baffles which meant it blew smoke rings when it started up.

:laugh: I'd forgot about that.

[backofbeyond]

Nice pic of the Arrow! I used to see a few of them around when I started my biking career but they were in the old wreck, buy it for the price of a pint category. The engine was the thing that made it stand out (to me anyway) until the Japs really got their act together with two stroke twins in the late 60's.

For a while the engines were quite sought after for kart racing as with a bit of port filing here and there they were quicker than the various Villiers powered contraptions that filled the grids then.

[bunker]

Ariel yes, square four no.

Oops! :laugh:

It was the best guess of a youngster.....:whistle:

[GB]

Ariel yes, square four no.

Oops! :laugh:

It was the best guess of a youngster.....:whistle:

No worries, I can't tell the difference between an R1 and a Blade :laugh: