Nick Ward plays with an entire litter and has his faith in the breed restored. Once bitten…

It seems that the more of life one experiences, the fewer surprises there are in store, and perhaps the only major advantage of growing older is not being baffled quite so frequently. Having been perplexed recently by discovering that my ‘new’ wartime BSA bicycle had woodworm, I did not expect any further quandaries for several months at least – but within a week was mystified again, this time by a handsome V-twin at the Shelfanger rally.

Despite having never even heard of a motorcycle called the Empire, let alone seen one, there was a niggling familiarity about it and, although the puzzle of a wormy BSA had been quickly solved – in keeping with skimpy war grade tyres, pedal blocks were made of wood in order to save rubber – the mystery machine continued to flummox me for most of that afternoon.

After examining the Empire several times, I eventually identified the frame as Ariel – there’s one just like it in my shed, hence the glimmer of recognition. This compact frame explained the bike’s ‘cobby’ look (as they used to say) rather than the long, low-slung, heavy design of a typical pre-war V-twin. Rain clouds loomed as the show ended, and wandering over for a final glimpse of the mighty Empire, I was lucky enough to meet its owner and builder, Roger Lye. Although preparing to make a dash for it before the downpour, he just had time to say that components from at least 14 different bikes went into building the machine and perhaps I would like to visit his workshop some time for a full description, pictures and a ride. As you can probably imagine, the excitement of being given access to this superb special and the surprise of such a generous offer, with no badgering on my part, made an imminent wetting seem well worthwhile.

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