By 1928~29 most motorcycles had been upgraded with the new saddle type petrol tanks, better brakes, 3 speed (and sometimes 4 speed) gearboxes, and better suspension. Ariel was no different and by 1929 they were also starting to amass quite a few awards from competition, a good indication of the reliability of a manufacturers product. This sales catalogue lists Ariels new features for 1929 as well as the 250cc, 500 and 550cc models (strangely no 350cc models) as well as their sidecars.
Click on the front cover below to see the complete manual.
It is a 2.12M PDF and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.
Vintage Ariels are not that common however one that is doing quite well is the 500cc OHV machine that is being raced in the South Island by Scout Fletcher. Click here to have a peek at how well she manages a heavyweight vintage 500.
This sales catalogue is quite interesting in that a few pages had hand written comments including prices added in. I have cleaned up the pages for the complete catalogue but have reproduced the unaltered pages here so that you if you are interested click on the image below to see what some of the models cost in 1929/30 in New Zealand.
