Works Ariel's GOV130 and GOV131...

Photo Courtesy Deryk Wylde Offroad Archive...

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This is Ariel GOV131 ridden by Gordon Blakeway in the 1959 Scottish Six Day Trial, Gordon had finished fourth the year before 1958...

Note: The "Golden Arrow" yellow tank badges that seem to have been used on all the works bikes from  1958...and well before the birth of the "Arrow"... and also fitted now in 1959 the Ariel Leader front hub and the second bolt front engine plates...

After finishing the page on the works 350 Ariel HT3 I realised there was not a lot of information about the history of Works Ariel HT5 with the registration number GOV131…

We know the registration number was registered at the beginning of January 1947 just a year after I was born so the bike or the registration plate has been going nearly as long as I have…

The first rigid incarnations were ridden by Cecil  "Bob" Ray and Norman Vanhouse the brother bike GOV130… Ray won the 1951 Colmore Cup trial along with the Cotswold and Beggars Roost trial on the new alloy engined VCH model…

By 1954 the only one day trials winning results by the Ariel team had to go back to Bob Ray’s wins in 1951 so a factory rethink had to be done, the engines had now updated single lobe cams fitted, along with smaller exhaust valve, and carburettor size, and larger finned head and barrels like the road bikes but in aluminium, also the VCH letters cast into the timing cover was now HT for the trials bike and HS for the scrambles version.  Bob Ray and fellow works rider Phil Mellers had out of public view been testing the new all welded swinging arm frame since early in 1953… but delays through redesign of the Burman gear box, and trying to pick the right mix of cycle parts for the bike out of what was in production, took longer than expected, and this meant the new trials model did not make its public debut at the 1954 London Motorcycle and Cycle show.  Bob Ray along with the other team members rode these prototype HT500 machines in the 1955 Scottish Six Days Trial and were now using BSA forks, yokes, and  the Ariel? single sided front brake hub… It was not until September of that year that the Production Ariel HT5 bikes were launched to the public, and some of the parts were now changed  IE, the half side front hub (said to be BSA by Don Morley in Classic British Trials Bikes ) had been replaced with the full width alloy hub used on the Red Hunter road bikes, but the rear hub was still the 1946 single sided unit, with sprocket bolted to the brake drum, and the swinging arm used was also an arm made up of the road bike steel pressings, and not the tubular ones used on the prototype bikes.

Although the new works bikes performed well in 1955 the wins did not come for the works team, and Bob Ray only managed a runner up place in the Cotswold trial as his best result of the year…

It was now 1956, and the new lad to the Ariel works team  Ron Langston on a standard production looking Ariel HT5 with the registration plate GOV130  came along and won the Cotswold Trial, and then the Greensmith…  Then a young chap named Miller came over from Northern Ireland with the Ariel HT5 he had been loaned by the factory to compete in the Scottish Six Days Trial of 1956, and not winning a class award. But won the trophy for the best non Scottish rider…

In 1957 when Gordon Blakeway had joined the Ariel works team, and given the bike registration number GOV131 to ride, the others in the team Ron Langston, Sammy Miller, and Bob Ray again won a fair few major National trials, and Gordon Blakeway also had several runner up spots that year … 

Photo Courtesy the Edward Freeman Collection...©...

Sammy Miller, Gordon Blakeway, and Ron Langston...

This history making shot of the 1958 Ariel works Scottish Six Day Trial team of this year...

Note: The yellow tank badges and all three machines have the Ariel half-sided 7" front brake hubs fitted the same as used on the prototype springer frames used in the 1955 SSDT...

Also Sammy's bike already has the high-rise exhaust fitted... 

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Sammy was runner up and Gordon was fourth in the 1958 Scottish Six Days Trial on GOV131...

Bob Ray hung up his boots at the end of this year...

Then in 1959 Ron Langston won the Knut trial, Gordon also won the Wye Vally Traders trial…Miller had not only won the AC-U Star, but won most of the other major National and trade supported trials of that year…

Then at the end of the Year 1959, Ariel pulled the plug on the trials team to concentrate on the Ariel Leader and Arrow production… would that happen now doubt it…

So that is basically the journeys end for Ariels GOV 131 and 130, as the machines were eventually sold to private owners that bid the most for them at the factory, (You remember Ron langston said that Ariel wanted to much for his works bikes and he only ended up with the Ariel HS scrambler), while the now only semi works Ariel bike GOV 132, went on to win most major National and International trials up until the end of November of 1964, in the hands of the Maestro Sammy Miller, and then we know the story of what happened to GOV132 gets even more mysterious…  but after the private journey the other two bikes GOV 130 and GOV131 had, we now know where they have both ended up, and are in the hands of keen collectors that will look after them… we will try and track their journeys... later and a lot more of the history...

Photo Credited...

GOV131 at the Ron Langston Ariel meet... GOV 130 is the third Ariel HT5 in the line up...

Note :The Ariel Leader front brake, and two bolt front engine plates on GOV131, and also the correct use of the what we now call the "Golden Arrow" tank badge... these seem to have been used on all of the Ariel 1958 works trials bikes, although the production HT3 and HT5 had the  red colour based badges...

Photo Courtesy Ron Cobb Esq...

This is GOV 130 and note: the bike is wearing the Ariel half sided front brake that was used on the first swinging arm HT prototype frames.

The BSA Heavyweight forks and yokes were retained on the production Ariel HT3 and HT5... some of the Ariel HT3 bikes left the factory with this Ariel half sided front brake, but all of the Ariel HT5's (400) had the full width 7" alloy front hub that was used on the Ariel Red Hunter and some BSA "A" series twins.

Photo Courtesy Bonhams...

This shot of Ron Langston on GOV130 clearly shows the Ariel HT5 in 1958-9... with the Ariel Leader Alloy front hub the "Yellow" tank badge's  and also the lack of ball ended levers...

Photo Courtesy Deryk Wylde Offroad Review...

Now, this is a photo of the ex works BSA reg BSA350, and Billy Macleod aboard Ariel HT5 MST221 the bike now in our collection...

 And this shot is from a line up at the start of the 1959 Lochaber Spring trial, and you can clearly see the blade control levers on the Ariel...So was it the start of 1960 when the "Ball-ended lever law" came into force for competition machines... Do you know?

After trying to find out a bit more, it seems Amal made the levers for most British bikes up until 1958. Then it seems J Doherty took over the manufacture of these pressed steel items, and although Amal had an aluminium ball ended control lever just starting in production at this time, for the after market trade, it was Doherty that was making most of the trade steel levers, and it was that company that started to add ball ends to some of their levers, "two Sizes", and it seems that these were only then fitted to the sports models later...from 1962... So it may be, and I think very possible, that non of the production Ariel motorcycles were ever fitted with ball ended levers... So it was AC-U regulations that instigated the change and not before 1960... 

Well just found this in a 1964 Motorcycle mag in September...

 Can you remember these.. so we still think ball ends after 1960-1...

Back to GOV130 and GOV131 now...

Photo Courtesy Bonhams Motorcycles...(Auctions)...

So here is GOV130 the last time it was for sale by Bonhams  at the Bicester Sale in late 2020... you can see that it has hardly changed in apperance since the photo above, that was taken at the early part of this century...It has had at least two owners in this period, the bike was said to have re-emerged from its sleep way back in the eighties when it was rescued from a dark shed by the then colourful editor of T-MX magazine the late Bill Lawless... well done that man... 

Photo Courtesy Edward Freeman...©...

Here in this superb shot of Gordon Blakeway and Ariel HT5 GOV131 at the Ron Langston Ariel meet last year..

More on this story later...

Cecil "Bob" Ray...

Probably one of the unsung Hero's that not many people from this age has ever known about...

But has you can see he made it to the then popular Castrol card series from the late Fifties and was a total star of that era...

Bob went on to run several Motorcycle shops in Devon UK when he retired from competative motorcycle sport in 1958...

Photo Courtesy Otterman from his Castrol card...

Bob Ray here riding the rigid version of GOV 131...

Photo Courtesy Otterman from his Castrol card...

Bob Ray one of the star riders for Ariel in the late Fourties and through the  Fifties...

This Card from 1956...

02/03/2024...

There  seems to be some confusion to what front brake was fitted to works 1958 Scottish bikes above and is causing concern in the Ariel Owners Club Forum..

I have always since reading the bible (Classic British Trials Bikes) Don Morley's book, that the half sided front brakes were BSA like the rest of the front end of the Ariel HT bikes...

But it has been pointed out to me by Roger Gwynn from Drag-An-Fly that the half sided hubs used were in fact vintage Ariel with the fulcram brake adjustment...

So did Don Morley let us all down with his research on the gospel of "HT Ariel" in his book... this is the question... I will look at GOV130 and make sure that is indeed an Ariel unit... I should have payed attention more in my youth and looked closer at Roy Steel's Ariel HT 3 out of the factory new bike... 

  23/03/2024...

A Photo that tells a tale...

Gordon Blakeway refitting the Ariel Leader front wheel in the Scottish Six Days car park, after having his trade supported new Dunlop  front tyre fitted. Most of the trade sponsored works riders had new tyres from Dunlop or Avon tyres and Castrol and Shell oil contracts, along with support from other companys such has Doherty with levers etc and Lucas with ignition parts mainly point's if I remember until the Rita ignition on the BSA and Triumph bikes came along.

Photo Courtesy Offroad Archives...Deryk Wylde...

Look at the squashed gallon can, and the paint on the fuel tank chipped where the fork leg has banged into it... Sammy Miller used a length of pipe from the cattle market railings to put dents in the Ariel tanks for better fork lock...

Update for you ED get well soon mate...

Just a start...and

Much More later… 

updat 2024...03...