April 19, 201313 yr Where did Sammy Miller's "GOV 132" come from. Was it the license plate registration or the race plate number? If it was the license plate registration, what country? Thanks
April 19, 201313 yr The Ariel factory was based at Selly Oak, Birmingham and as trials machines were used on the public highway they had to be road registered with a licence disc and number plate for the street. Ariels registered three Hunter Trials machines in 1949 with sequential numbers: GOV130; GOV131 and GOV132. OV being a Birminham index number. These numbers were used on the factory team bikes from 1949 through until the early 1960's. Miller joined the factory team in around 1956 and was allocated GOV132 which had been ridden by Jack Stocker of Royal Enfield fame when he rode for Ariels in the early years. Bob Ray rode GOV 130 in the SSDT as did Ron Langston and Phil Mellers at one time and occassional Bob Ray rode GOV 131 as did Gordon Blakeway in the SSDT before switching to ride for AJS. Hope this is of interest? Big John
April 20, 201313 yr Hi Guys, Hi Jrs. Gov 132, became famous because, Sam was given a free hand to modifie this bike while it was in his charge. He had a part of the BSA comp shop, which by this time was the last of the Ariel competition machines. Sam was on a mission to reduce the weight of the machine to has light as possible. This meant building a lightweight frame of Reynolds tube that carried the oil in the frame down tube. Alloy and Titainiam was used where possible , along with special alloy castings. Modified forks with Norton sliders were used valanced alloy rims laced to Ariel Leader alloy hubs, And self tappers for tyre security. 19 inch rear 21 inch front. Wheels. Glass fibre tank seat and mudguards were made by Chris Butler.and even front number plate. Engine was liberally drilled were possible to reduce weight, along with gearbox shafts ETc these were then plugged with Nylon, the bars were firstly Reynolds 531 tube but later alloy. Levers were sourced from a Velocett LE with rubber ball ends added. Alloy air box ,BSA moped speedo, and even smaller 428 chain. Sam's work on this bike is what started the Classic Trials Bike modifieing revolution , make no mistake. Regards Charlie.
May 17, 201313 yr Big John said "occassionaly Bob Ray rode GOV 131" So while looking through an old trials book I came across this picture of Bob riding GOV 131 at the Scottish.
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