I'd Ride It. You?
Today’s first ever installment of I’d Ride it. You?, which I just invented, is an Ariel Square Four Chopper found on Butcheredclassics.com.
The Ariel SF, of course, was designed by Edward Turner himself in 1928, and produced by Ariel all the way from 1931 to 1959. What’s going on with it is a pair of parallel Twins fore and aft in a common block, joined by their geared central flywheels.
On this chopper version, I’m going to speculate keeping the rear cylinders cool was the least of your problems. I think you’d be fully tasked keeping your speed up to keep her between the ditches, given those long skinny fork tubes feeding into what’s already a period British flexi-flyer – and planning your stops well ahead.
Still, think how comfortable you and yours would be cruising langorously along in the comfort of that King and Queen seat, on your way to a Beatles show or spot of tea, with the warm summer air and mayflies running up your bellbottoms and playing through the fringe on your buckskin jacket as the sound of not one but two British twins rumbled gloriously from your organ pipes, possibly freshly lifted from St. Paul’s.
I’d ride her. You?
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How fast is it?
I have ridden more than my fair share of choppers, from respected-shop customs to garage-built abortions using CB750s, 60s Triumphs and BSAs to the expected Harley ones. I will try different types of bikes so I can understand them, or not understand them. Only then could I form an evaluation of the characteristics that would make it rideable, or not. These things, although rideable, are a ridiculous take on how two-wheel dynamics work. Maybe I have been influenced by reading, and then reading again and again, Tony Foale's book "Motorcycle Handling and Chassis Design - The Art and Science", both 1st and 2nd editions. I rode a few choppers before I read his book, so I didn't have many preconceived notions. But I found them immediately. Even the recognized brand choppers are, uhm, horrible. And I'm not some noob. I do appreciate passion, custom fab skills and artistic expression. But you cannot alter the forces of physics and how it affects motorcycle handling dynamics, good or bad. Oh, I would not ride it because I have ridden too many and intimately know how they work, or don't work.