Boxerworks.com

Wow, some real beasts in the "strange engine" link:

Bamboo812 wrote:Wow, some real beasts in the "strange engine" link:

I think this is a Brit Ariel square four

Armaguidon13 wrote:I think this is a Brit Ariel square four

It is, indeed. The very last rendition, just under 1,000cc.

When I was a pup I wanted one. I once followed one around Lake Lowell, in Idaho, while riding my Dad's Triumph Thunderbird. The Ariel had 4 megaphones as I recall. I thought it was the sweetest sounding engine I'd ever heard. In a word, exotic. Yes, I wanted a square four, but not very badly. The reason: the Ariel square four wasn't competitive in any style of racing. Therefore I didn't want one.

Now, in my later years, with a modicum of sense and sensibility having replaced my trend following proclivities--I still don't want one.

But you gotta give that squre four Ariel 'purty'.

Ken

I have always lusted after the square four. I know it's not a terribly practical design, especially for an air-cooled engine, but it calls to me. Much like the way flatheads are far inferior to OHV engines, but they still have a gut appeal to me.

As a kid, a friend of a friend had a square 4. My friend would goad young male idiot drivers to a drag race with his friend who only had a "four banger" Of course many took that challenge, and lost, face and money. That was my first square 4 and I had no interest in motorcycles, so it didn't hit home for several more years.

I just love telling the literal truth and the listener hears a lie.

Duane Ausherman wrote:. . . I just love telling the literal truth and the listener hears a lie.

Ah, Duane. I'm betting you've never attended a parochial grade school. So you were never taught that such a 'literal truth' is actually a lie of omission. And depending on whether it was a big lie or a little one determines how long the punishment.

Ken

I've seen Square 4s at the local Oregon Vintage Motorcycle get togthers. Maybe just the same one every time.

...I should get a Trident.

enigmaT120 wrote:I've seen Square 4s at the local Oregon Vintage Motorcycle get togthers. Maybe just the same one every time.

...I should get a Trident.

Yes you should. Me too. For years I've wanted a Trident, preferably the T150 rather than the T160 (with slanted cylinders and an electric starter IIRC). The earlier Trident struck me as a more 'honest' motorcycle. (Which is not to suggest expectations of getting better than 1 hour maintenance per 1 hour riding). The one Trident I heard sometime seemed to have that vertical twin sound, only 'more' and seemed not to have that not so exciting 4 cylinder sound. OK, that 4 cylinder sound I don't care for probably was what the Ariel square four sounded like back in the day. But that was before 4 cylinder motorcycles were everywhere.

Ken

If we speek about other bikes than BMW ...
I miss my CBX 6, My Kawa 900 Z1 bored to 1135, my H2, my XT 500, etc
I've bought all that bikes when they were just old second hand bikes, not vintages, now I can't give the money for most of them !
But a trident, a Norton fast back etc are on my dreams also, I'm not a BMW integrist

Finally, the square four is a nice bike ....