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]

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