1957 Ariel Square Four MKII Classic Vintage British Motorcycle
Larry Horn of Huntington Beach, California shows us his 1957 Ariel Square Four MKII, which he restored himself. All riding video shot with the GoPro Hero 3+.
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A local guy put one of those engines in a mad 60s chopper (ie it was built back then) with all the period lashings, those engines are fine as long as you don't expect them to do anything they weren't designed for (be a race engine?) I heard the rear cylinders can overheat if they get leant on too much
Congratulations on a very nice restoration, nice to see you have kept this bike original, even the alloy rims could have been on it in 1957, but the whole bike looks very nice and I am sure is a pleasure to ride, at least it will not get any more cold wet English winters!
it's very amazing classic motorcycle,,,hope someday I can find it,,,and have it,,,even though its still in my big dream,,for the time being,,,god bless U bro,,,,
Back in the day, had the fastest quarter mile acceleration time of 12.9 seconds as I recall. They were very attractive sitting on the showroom floor, great detail attention at the factory.
Very nice apart from the disgusting front mudguard.
Me like
When I was a rocker back in England 1968 one of our lads had one of those. A classic.
You don't know how much the tank holds? You must not ride it enough.
don't change the rims on this bike, it looks much better with those
Larry, can you elaborate on the rear suspension. I don't recall seeing this on showroom models I saw in the day, they were all swing-arm equipped at the dealer in '57 or '58 in Wichita, Ks.
WOW, awesome :-)
Edward Turner would have liked to have seen this!…. I got to know him, he lived near me in the final months of his life, I was 17 at the time and owned a Triumph Tiger Cub, which he approved of, ( he always liked to tell me that he designed it!)…… I often used to see him driving around at 20 MPH in his Daimler (Mk2 Jag style body) – which had his V8 engine under the hood, that he designed for the Daimler Dart sports car…… great guy, thanks for this great video, I must get a square 4 one day, they trend at about 10,000 of our english pounds these days though!….
The square four ended production in 58, they had naturally problems with rear cylinders over heating. as a kid I saw a drag race between a squariel and a 650 Matchless, the Matchless won, I don't know if it was an early 600, I learnt to ride on a Ariel 500 red hunter, on a flat road leaning forward it could do a little over 80mph, being 14 and still on push bikes this was the most fun I had ever experienced, a few years latter I did find fun riding other forms as well but that's another story, when I was sixteen, nine months + one day I purchased a 67 Bonneville, the bikes I have owned is quite a big list, motorcycles have been a big part of my life…
Always loved the looks of this engine but always hated the rest of the bike
Wow, what a beauty! Well done, sir. I always thought the Square Four had one of the best-looking engines ever designed.
Looks like the queen of England, what, what? God save the queen!
I like that split screen at 8:40. Nice quick editing touch.
It is definitely NOT 2 Triumph 500 Twins. The Triumph Twin engine is a Twin Cam design, the Ariel is NOT !
I'm from Hungary.
Very very nice renewing
Before 40 years I got my first bike a Horex Regina 350.
Earlier I looked for bikes and somebody offered me an Ariel Square but with side car. I was young and stupid. I not need side car I would like to rush such a king of roads 🙂
I'm sorry that bike already. But I have a gasolin tank of it :)
beautiful job sir….my first bike was a 19958 ariel 650 cyclone which I rode to school everyday, in all weather and it was a great bike…..later I switched to Harley, but still love british bikes and wish I still had my ariel……my dad liked it so much he bought an ariel that looked like an expensive scooter, because the engine was enclosed and it had built in metal compartments in rear, like metal saddle bags…..I wish I could remember the model name.
Ultra nice! What a great sound and beautiful power plant. 👍🏼
beautiful machine thaks for the great vid
Thank for posting nice old bike good job,
I briefly own this machine back in 1971.
By that I mean this model, but it was rough running due to a crank bearing problem, so I sold it.
Absolutely beautiful.
Nice video! Is that Palmdale/Lancaster area by chance?
Stunning restoration. I doubt it looked that good when it left the factory. Mr Horn, you should be very proud of yourself.
Gorgeous bike
Super nice job. The rear suspension is actually known as an Anstey link and isn't really a plunger assembly. Lovely bike!
Hello do you want to see a Husqvarna TT so check here.
Man that is one gorgeous restoration of a really unique vintage motorcycle!
What a superb machine!
That is one nice machine! I came within a hair of buying a 1952 squairial with sidecar when I was a kid & still regret no doing so over 50 years later.
Although it wouldn't matter for that particular bike, as you wouldn't be putting high mileage on it, but I would be concerned why the builder used those much shorter skirt pistons? Much more stable & long life with the longer skirts. Could someone explain to me pls/thx.
WELL DONE!
How was the crankshaft configured with that square layout?
I never saw before this Ariel;very nice bike.
nice video. what is cc power of this bike
"The Squariel" beautiful and an excellent sidecar hack too.