Miles of smiles
To the casual observer, this combination would appear to be nothing more than a mid-1950s ‘bitsa,’ based around an Ariel Red Hunter with a rather wide sidecar attached.
However, for me, it’s a very special machine, as it was made by two men who I have known for all of my motorcycling life, and used on an event I was proud to be involved in for 15 years. The bike is now owned by West Country enthusiast Owen Ingram, but in the mid 1990s it was constructed by Frome motorcycle dealers and enthusiasts Ernest ‘Nobby’ Clark and John Ransome, and regularly used in the Circuito Del Mendip.
The ‘Circuito’ was the annual Frome Classic club’s 100 mile lap of the wonderful Mendip Hills in North Somerset, and was once described by historian and author Jeff Clew as ‘…the best classic bike event in the UK.’ The location for our photoshoot also brought back many happy memories for me, as it was here – at Great Elm, near Frome – where in the 1950s and 60s my father used to pass by driving his old steam locomotive.
His little Sentinel would be hauling the stone from the nearby ARC quarry to the crusher at Hapsford, before being transported
