Ariel back with £20,000 bespoke bikes

British firm Ariel will return with a new road bike next year which will be built in Britain but use a Honda engine. Ariel’s motorcycle-loving owner promises the bike will be “high-performance, fun to ride and bespoke” and says it will cost around £20,000.

Ariel currently makes high performance cars – its Atom tops the Top Gear all-time leader board – but company owner Simon Saunders is a life-long motorcyclist and has always planned to build Ariel bikes at the firm’s Somerset headquarters. He bought the firm in 1991 and set up Ariel Cars Ltd in 2001 – sales have increased every year since.

Saunders aims to make up to 200 bikes a year and a deal with Honda to supply engines has already been agreed. The firm uses Honda Civic Type R Vtec engines in the handbuilt cars it already sells – a unique deal that has been agreed by the Japanese giant for the bikes, too.

Read the full story on Ariels return in this week’s issue of MCN (Wednesday 27 July), on sale now. Don’t miss out, subscribe to MCN from just £1 an issue.