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New Ariel motorcycle to be a supercharged single cylinder?
Not long ago, we brought you news of a possible Ariel motorcycle revival, and now it appears that the bike is a go. In that original article, it was said that the bike could possibly be powered by either a single cylinder gas engine or even electric. Electric it's not, but a single cylinder has indeed been chosen for this new application... with the slight addition of a supercharger. According to Motorcycle News, "The idea is to make a bike easily adaptable to suit town riders, riding on fast roads and even track use just by changing handlebars and seats."
Single cylinder bikes, also known as thumpers (at least when a four-stroke is used, as it would be here), are often very entertaining, and a supercharger would only add to the fun. Motorcycle News did an online poll to find out what its readership would like to see from the new bike. According to Simon Saunders at Ariel, "Our gut feel is that we'll go along with the reader vote, and work on the single." If the resulting bike follows the design principles of the above rendering and turns out even half as awesome as the Atom, we are very excited at the possibilities.
[Source: Motorcycle News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ian 11:43AM (12/28/2007)
I can see an inexpensive racing series around this design.
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cowboy bob 2:39PM (12/28/2007)
This is cool. what dealerships might handle this thing here in New York? Anybody got this info????
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mike 4:42PM (12/28/2007)
This is so 2007. Where's the electric version.
cowboy bob 1:01AM (12/29/2007)
Gee Mike, you have been soooo helpful.
rcousine 4:31PM (12/31/2007)
This is odd. Turbos and superchargers are rarely used on motorcycles because the hardware itself is usually just as heavy as adding a cylinder or some displacement. In other words, if you build a 500cc single with a supercharger, it's likely to be about as big and heavy as a 1000cc engine, but for little or no added power.
Several Japanese makers went the turbo route in the 80s, and a combination of weight, complexity, insurance issues, and turbo lag doomed all of these bikes. A supercharger will do away with the turbo lag, but will add even more weight.
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