4 May - BSA Shoots Down Ariel

If you were in Blackpool, England in 1965 and had already been up the Tower, ridden the donkeys and consumed half your body-weight in Wall’s ice cream, you may have popped along to the Winter Gardens to see the new machines on display at the Cycle & Motorcycle Show. If you were a fan of Ariel motorcycles though, the news wasn’t so good. Their four-strokes had already been killed off by parent company, BSA, in 1959 - no more Square Fours. Then, in 1963, the Selly Oak factory was closed and...