SINGLE SCRAMBLER
High school English classes usually include lessons on the many works of Shakespeare.
In choosing a name for his high-wheel bicycle circa 1870, British industrialist James Starley did well to recall his own study of The Tempest — opting to insinuate that if Ariel could fly, so too could his bicycle. Starley was not, however, likely thinking that any of his wheeled products would ever fly — even if it was off a dirt jump set up for scrambles or motocross action. But that’s what the 1955 Ariel Hunter Scrambler seen here on these pages could do.
Ariel’s story begins in 1869, when engineer and inventor Starley was working as a foreman for the Coventry Sewing Machine Company of Birmingham, England. According to the Ariel Motorcycle Club of North America, the company decided to quit producing sewing machines and their intricate components and became the Coventry Machinists Company. Starley saw a brighter future in putting people on wheeled goods and began producing bicycles. It was Starley, together with partner William Hillman, who patented the spoked wheel
