1959 Ariel Huntmaster

1959 AREIL HUNTMASTER BACKGROUND
Ariel was owned by the Sangster family, failed a few times, then ended up in the hands of young Jack Sangster. Ariel was his entry into the British motorcycle industry, something that would have profound effects on it. He did so well selling single-cylinder Red Hunters, that he was able to buy Triumph Motorcycles for a song, when they got into financial trouble. He sold them both to BSA, one of the world’s largest corporations at the time. Triumph turned out to be the jewel in the crown for BSA, even though they weren’t sharp enough to recognize of appreciate it. Ariel, who had always struggled, now had a big parent-company with vast resources to draw upon. By the 1950s, virtually every British motorcycle maker was fielding a vertical twin. Ariel tapped into BSAs vast gene pool and pulled out a BSA A10 650 twin as a starting point. Ariel completely reengineered the bike, and of course restyled it along traditional Ariel family lines. It turned out to be a fine machine, nice and certainly more handsome (a matter of opinion, of course) than its BSA stablemates.