ARIEL VB600

NOT ALL MOTORCYCLES WERE AND ARE built for high-speed performance. Before the cheap family car arrived at the end of the 1950s, the motorcycle was the ordinary bloke’s standard means of just getting around. Sometimes what buyers were looking for was simplicity, solidity and the ability to haul the rider around for thousands of miles, often attached to a hefty double-adult sidecar. The lack of cheap vans saw many a tradesman bolt a box sidecar to a sturdy single to carry around their tools, or even pull a trailer.

A little history

For bikes like this, what was needed was a sturdy and reliable side valve mill to drag this kind of family transport around. Along with big beasts like BSA’s M21 and the Norton Big 4, one of the last of the breed was Ariel’s VB, the last side valve made by the company. The engine was a concept penned by legendary designer Val Page, whose design for a side valve single had a bottom end that shared many components with Ariel’s OHV engines.

For those who might not have come across a side valve, the engine would have a flat, finned cylinder head with a combustion chamber inside and two valves operating upside down. Roger Gwynn, from Ariel specialists Draganfly,