The Ariel Ace reportedly offers customisation levels never before seen by a motorcycle manufacturer
Makers of the ridiculous, somehow street legal Aerial Atom stripped back race car, are now taking on the motorcycle market with the Ariel Ace.
We’ve covered crack motorcycle manufacturers KTM hitting the road with four pieces of rubber in its X-Bow car, but now we’re equally excited to find Atom developing its relationship with Honda and creating two-wheeled designs.
What makes it even more interesting is Ariel’s proposed customisable ‘bespoke build service’ that will impact every bike that rolls of its production line in Crewekern, Somerset.
A bespoke build could result in this sportier model
The bike’s frame is welded from six sections, each individually CNC machined over a 70 hour process from a solid block of aluminium alloy, before being anodised in the customer’s choice of colour.
From this base the Ace slaps in a Honda 1237cc engine (a choice of 6-speed sports, or a dual-clutch cruiser) and lets loose with the preferences, creating laid-back cruisers to aggressive naked street racers, the options allow for different wheels, suspension, fuel tanks and bodywork.
The frame is CNC’d in 6 billets from an aluminium alloy before being welded together
It’s not just aesthetic trimming – even the handlebar head angle can be adjusted to preference using interchangeable eccentric bearing holders to adjust the rake angle from 21.8 degrees to 28.4.
Some trick suspension options at the front end add to the engineering ingenuity, while three choices of seats and three for pedals mean that the end product is going to be bespoke.
Ariel’s set itself the task of producing a British motorbike from scratch, and it’s unlikely to be like anything else on the road – let alone likely to look like any other of its own kind.
Read about how the Ariel Atom was assisted in manufacture using 3D laser scanning.
