SHOWSTOPPERS

ARIEL TRIALS 500

Ariel arrived late to the party with a swinging arm trials bike. The firm’s off-road competition machines retained a rigid rear end well into the 1950s, long after most manufacturers had adopted twin-shock suspension. But the alloy-engined HT5 was well worth waiting for – as Sammy Miller, Ron Langston and Gordon Blakeway so ably demonstrated. And although machines ridden by the works team undoubtedly benefitted from special attention at the Selly Oak comp shop, the private clubman competitor could stop off at a High Street showroom and purchase an HT5 with a very similar specification. That’s probably what happened with the HT5 you see here, which was sold by Comerfords in November 1958 for £195 plus £48 purchase tax.

The first swinging arm HTs were tested in 1955 at the Scottish Six Days Trial – just as many off-road riders were swapping their heavy old thumpers for lighter, smaller capacity two-strokes. The trials Red Hunter was available as a 350 and 500 (HT3 and HT5), with both engines ‘specially tuned to deliver high power at low RPM’ – the 497cc HT5 ran at 5.6:1 compression, for example, and both motors featured ground / polished ports.

The short (53-inch instead of 56) wheelbase swinging arm frame promised ‘great strength combined with light weight’, and indeed at 290lb the HTs were around 80lb lighter than the standard singles, with an extra 1½ inches of ground clearance. The HT used