SWEETLY Sloping

Few other Vintage-era British manufacturers offered as extensive or as varied a range of motorcycles in the late 1920s as Ariel, one of the pioneer brands in two-wheeled history, which was by then part of the Components Ltd group owned by the Sangster family. Charles Sangster had purchased Ariel back in 1902, but it wasn’t until his son Jack – who’d duly prove to be one of the most astute management figures ever in British motorcycle industry annals – took over running the company after WW1 that the Birmingham-based marque really began to flourish.

This especially came after Val Page joined it in 1925 from JAP as Chief Designer, then from 1926 onwards produced a flow of good-selling new models powered by Ariel’s own engines of his creation. Previously, Ariel had used proprietary motors from the likes of Blackburne, JAP and even Swiss concern MAG. This exciting array of ground-up new models prompted the company slogan ‘Ariel – The Modern Motor Cycle’, and resulted in Ariel selling 19,000 machines in the first eight months of 1929, before that September’s London Stock Exchange Crash changed what was then the world’s largest motorcycle industry for ever.

Sangster responded to the ensuing 1930 downturn in sales by swimming against the industry tide. Most of Ariel’s competitors which managed to survive did so by drastically pruning their ranges, and by concentrating on budget-priced bikes with limited performance.

But Sangster on the other hand commissioned Page to develop an eight-model single-cylinder line-up for 1931, ranging from the three 250cc Colt models to the 557cc sidevalve sidecar tug, with a quartet of 500cc machines in between.

This was unveiled in October 1930, just ahead of London’s Olympia Show, together with a ninth range-topping model in the shape of the Square Four, which had been created by Page’s notional