Project "Big Badger"

[Ariel Badger]

In the online encyclopedia Wikipedia under Ariel there is a model listed called the Badger. I placed this few years ago both as a joke and to prove the fallibility of an encyclopedia that is fully editable by its users. People have copied and pasted it to other websites and the Ariel Badger is now a reality on the WWW. Ariel never built a Badger but what if they had?

I built myself "The Badger" last year. She is based on a 1936 350cc Ariel Red Hunter but heavily modified for sprinting but she was mainly constructed to do the Red Marley freak hillclimb.
As a rigid framed bike the obvious class to enter her into is class 1, "Pre 1950 Rigid Unlimited cc" being only 350 cc she was at an obvious disadvantage.
My times in practise were reasonable but my clutch failed in race one dumping me on my bum in the mud. Even with such limited testing it was obvious that my 350ccs would never win against the 500cc machines.
So welcome to project "Big Badger".It is a fairly humble upgrade and lacks the cutting edge technology of McGee's monster Gixer redesign but hear goes.

I had a frantic three hours at the Ariel Club AGM talking learning and buying. I wanted a specific cylinder head, that of a 500cc single port Red Hunter from the years 1935-1937. I like the look of this head and it is fairly easy to port out for better gas flow.
My mate gave me a twin port head with no valves but it turned out to be a 1930 head so the search went on. Another of my mates said he knew that I had been looking for a RH head and he almost got in touch with me as he had one on the shelf. I told him that the 1930 head I had would not work and asked him to call me and tell me his price.
£160 may sound stiff but it has all the valve gear (unique for 1935-37) but the true value is over £200 on Ebay so I jumped at the offer and collected it at the Stafford show last week.
I feel that rather than build a 500cc long stroke engine we should aim at a square motor ( bore and stroke being equal) so we are going to use the 500 head on the 350 crankshaft. What we need is a 500 barrel to cut down to suit the shorter stroke, we also need to drill it so we can thro bolt the head down to the crankcases so we do not blow the thing apart on high compression piston and funny fuel. 500 barrels are not easy to obtain and it seems a shame to butcher good Ariel bits so we came up with plan B.
Plan B. I obtained a cast iron barrel on loan and we are having a casting made in aluminium at a foundry from the original, this will then be machined to suit our stroke and piston.
At this stage we had no piston but this was rectified at Stafford. Ariel did not make a piston of high enough compression for this head so we searched through a lot of other make pistons.
A standard Ariel bore is 81.9 mm but I found a Velocette Venom Clubman piston of 86 mm with a loverly high crown that is made for the job, Price £10! A 86 mm piston on a 85mm stroke gives us 490cc displacement, just what I want.
Also at Stafford I got offered the use of a camshaft made by the greatest tuner of Ariels ever, Laurence Hartley in the 30s, it is one of only 2 of these cams that still exist, it is on long term loan but it will be copied by me.
I will keep this article updated as work progresses.
Wali T
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Endless Nameless]

Now that sounds like a real project, and an interesting one at that, make sure you keep us posted sir.

Nice to know some people are keeping the old spirit of modifying, chopping and changing and tinkering in the name of improvement alive, instead of just ordering some shiny bits. Long may The Badger reign!

Oh, and congratulations on introducing another model of Ariel, however many years it is now after they went under


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A2 passed 22/07/08; restriction up 22/07/10 (just so I don't forget)
'79 Suzuki GS550E. Yes, that's a GS550, not a GS500.
Supersports "In a video editing competition I'd kick your sorry ass"

[Ariel Badger]

Just a bit of an update.
Taking a casting from a cast iron original did not work. The fins were too thin to take aluminium and the sand would not release in the mould so we are now on plan C.
Plan C.
My good friend Doug is a retired pattern maker and has made up a split pattern from wood with a modified fin profile and thicker wall to take the 86mm piston, we will be taking it to the foundry this week.
I have the Hartley racing cam and a old standard cam. The old cam is going to be built up and profile ground to the spec of the Hartley and will have a few extra mods for lubrication that were used on the Scrambler HS cams.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Ariel Badger]

Barrel pattern...
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Gazdaman]

Very cool project! I watch this one with muchos interest!

Gaz

[Lone-Wolf]

[chris-red]

Keep posting I'm interested in seeing this complete.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Ariel Badger]

We got the barrel back from the foundery and I have started to machine it.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Ariel Badger]

more
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[tatters]

Are you going to press in a iron selve or can you Nicosil plate the cylinder?
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Past:NRG50,AF1125(x2),NSR125RR,ZZR250,CX500,VFR400,KR1S,ZZR600(x2),CB400N,YZF1000(x2),KH125,Z200,FX400R,CBR954RR(x2)GPZ500S,GT550,VFR750F(x2),RD350N,XR650R,CBR600F,CB250,KDX250,YZF750R,CRM250,400EXC,KLR650,TTR600RE,DR350S,R100GSPD,RGV250,VMAX1200,DL650,KZ750 Present:G650XC,C12,CRF450X,1190ADV

[Frost]

Fuckin hardcore.

Best of luck with everything, hope you end up with something totally unique

[Ariel Badger]

[virus]

Think its going to be ready for next years red marley?

It will certainly be interesting to come and see, ever been tempted to get it on a dyno?



Cheers
John
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Ariel Badger]

It will be ready well before then John. With the extra 150cc banging it up close to 500 it should be very competitive and at least get me near to the winner. Next job for the foundry is to cast me a bigger set of balls.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[old_lou]

depends, if Terry Challinor and Arthur Browning have anything to say about they will be needed lol

[virus]

Cool as f*ck



Cheers
John
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Ariel Badger]

[stinkwheel]

For future reference. I went into the workshop up the road from me to see my mate, in defience of all received wisdom and common sense, happily machining a barrel for a matchless G50 out of a solid lump of billet alloy on his lathe. By hand.

He then ground the outside of the cooling vanes to shape on his crank grinder, milled the pushrod tubes, bored it, then pressed in a liner.

Possibly cheaper to do than having one pattern cast?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Frost]

At least with a pattern you can redeem some cash on ebay supplying some unique spares

[old_lou]

[Visitor Q]

[Ariel Badger]

Had the engine loose assembled on the bench.
Managed to acuratly work out the compression ratio. We estimated it a 10-1
Measuring swept volume plus combustion chamber volume at TDC
Over combustion chamber volume at TDC.
It gave 11-1.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Ariel Badger]

more
____________________
Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Ariel Badger]

put it together to see how she looks with valve gear on.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Shaane]

Giz' a go?

Engine looks absolutely huge. Look forward to seeing finished bike mate
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