9. Ariel Golden Arrow - The Parts Start To Arrive

I think renovating a bike is a bit like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait for ages and then two or three arrive at the same time. Having waited a few weeks for parts to come back for my 1961 Ariel Golden Arrow suddenly the wheels were ready and the chroming arrived back so I was able to carry on with the rebuild.

I collected the wheels from Shirebrook Motorcycles and they look great with their new stainless steel rims and spokes and the rebuilt and painted hubs. So it was off to the tyre fitters, MTS of Nottingham, to have the new white wall tyres, that I've been saving for months, slipped onto the rims. And don't they look nice? The blue colour that you can see is a protective plastic coating on the white walls, that I am not going to remove until much later on in the rebuild,

Whilst the back wheel can't be fitted yet, as the rear swinging arms are mounted on the engine and I don't have a engine yet, I decided to try fitting the front wheel to the newly assembled front forks. This requires the newly polished front brake back plate to be fitted to the hub first and the the assembled wheel can be passed between the forks and into place. Next is the hard bit. You have to pass the front axle through the left trailing arm, then through the hub and then through the right trailing arm. The trouble is that the holes in the trailing arms are hanging below the forks, pushed down by the front suspension springs on the shock absorbers. It looked like an impossible task to line all three up and hold them there while the axle is passed through.

For the first time I found the information I needed in one of the manuals! There are some extra holes in the front forks and the trailing arms. What I needed was some pegs to pass through these holes, while the front suspension is compressed. These pegs, which I made from an old VW Beetle push rod, pass through all three holes and hold the suspension compressed while you pass the axle through. How to compress the suspension? Simple another trusty ratchet strap passed around the headstock and the bike lift and as the strap is tightened the front suspension comes down and it's in with the pegs.

Now the wheel can go in and the axle passed through from the left side. It was at this point that I found that the axle was too short!. The thread on the right side did not pass through the trailing arm far enough to get the nut on.  After studying the problem, I worked out that I had put the bush in the trailing arm in from the wrong side and that it should have been fitted to the inside of the trailing arm. So it was out with the axle and off with the wheel again so that I could remove the bush and push it in from the other side. Then back in with the wheel and axle and this time the nut went on the treads  and tightened down. Then the pinch bolt could be tightened on the left side trailing arm and the axle was in place.


Copyright K. Hopcroft  03.11.14 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
 https://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html


Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html

1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car: 
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html 

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html