History
Heralded in 1959, as: "The Machine of the Year" with adverts announcing that "They will all be like this in a few years time" the Ariel Leader broke with tradition and indeed, did set the trend for things to come (take a look around at modern bikes!). Perhaps, it broke too much with tradition and was too far ahead of its time for the buying public as only @ 33,000 were made, and eventually, it saw the demise of, Ariel Motors. A truly radical blend of motorcycle and scooter, it afforded the rider excellent weather protection and comfort all from the mind of engineer Valentine Page, who had been involved in motorcycles since almost the beginning (the Leader was, was his "swan song". This motorcycle also set the trend for optional extras, although few at the time, could afford them (turn signals, side stand, parking light, rear bumper, panniers with vinyl inserts to use for shopping-no plastic bags! a front stand, rear mudguard, trouble light, and the ever elusive 8 day clock). The petrol tank is in the subframe and the "fake one" is a storage area that also houses the the steering lock and the seat compartment lock , to deter theft. When the BMW dealer was touting the virtues of my 2011 model, there wasn't much new or innovative on offer that - Ariel hadn't already done some 50 years earlier! This was the final of the 3 pinnacle (my opinion) immediate post war brit bikes i was seeking, the others being a Sunbeam S7 and Velocette LE, they were all, radical departures for their time as the slate had been wiped clean.
Modifications
Owner/enthusiast completed bare metal, ground up restoration involving over 100 painted parts (not for the faint hearted) and although the bride's rotating clothes line was ideal for painting the parts-mental note to self: best get it all cleaned up before, she returns! The tapered cones are the exhaust tips, included to show that sometimes we need to remind ourselves that although the replacement part may not be exactly what we'd hoped for-at least you could still get them! Lacking a metal lathe at the time, my wood lathe was called into action to clean the tips up.
