Gentleman’s Express
Alan Cathcart brings us the most lust-worthy bikes from around the world
It’s become a cliché to describe MV Agusta as the Ferrari of two wheels, with each marque dominant in its own form of Grand Prix racing, and each presided over by an autocratic despot. Likewise, its Benelli rival has been described as the Maserati of motorcycles, each the product of the impecunious but passionate endeavour of a band of brothers. But in Britain, there’s a couple of comparable analogies, with Triumph so very much motorcycling’s equivalent to its close neighbour Jaguar, thanks to its sporty Speed Twin and later Bonneville derivatives, while the fast, luxurious Ariel Square Four – whose showroom debut in 1931 marks its 90th anniversary this year – is most definitely a two-wheeled Aston Martin. Moreover, there’s a further connection between these two legendary motorcycle models in that a single man was responsible for creating each of them: Edward Turner.
It’s become a cliché to describe MV Agusta as the Ferrari of two wheels, with each marque dominant in its own form of Grand Prix racing, and each presided over by an autocratic despot. Likewise, its Benelli rival has been described as the Maserati of motorcycles, each the product of the impecunious but passionate endeavour of a band of brothers. But in Britain, there’s a couple of comparable analogies, with Triumph so very much motorcycling’s equivalent to its close neighbour Jaguar, thanks to its sporty Speed Twin and later Bonneville derivatives, while the fast, luxurious Ariel Square Four – whose showroom debut in 1931 marks its 90th anniversary this year – is most definitely a two-wheeled Aston Martin. Moreover, there’s a further connection between these two legendary motorcycle models in that a single man was responsible for creating each of them: Edward Turner. an impoverished 26-year-old former merchant seaman who’d become a Velocette dealer in Peckham, Southeast London, and, without any formal engineering training, had designed a 348 cc single-cylinder OHC engine. He went through various means of driving its
