People often tell me that the Leader was an unpopular motorbike and a failure. These views come with a substantial dose of hindsight and prejudice. For some reason, two-strokes are seen as something second rate amongst British motorcycle aficionados. While it's true that sales of the Leader and Arrow fell away after a couple of years, the Leader, when introduced, was a sensation. Quite rightly called "Tomorrow's design .... today!", the Leader was launched with much fanfare. The British 'Motor Cycling' magazine dedicated 27 pages of editorial, articles and advertising to the Leader, which I've presented in full here.
The single bare sentence "British Factory's Sensational Newcomer" gives no hint of what's to come.
Page one and Alpha Bearings have a full page advertisement linking themselves to the Leader engine.
Five full pages of dealer listings
An editorial lauding the Leader
Castrol oil jumps on the Leader bandwagon
Ariel take out a two page advertisement
Kings of Oxford, as the leading Ariel agent, present a full page advertisement
Motor Cycling's five page article about the Leader
The Leader's design team receive a full page article
Avon Tyres advertisement
Esso Oil also took out a full page advertisement
As does Shell Oil
More dealer advertisements
Assembly line photographs from the Selly Oak factory.
Mobil Oil also took out a full page advertisement
Dunlop Tyres add a full page advertisement for their white wall tyres.
From the editorial
ReplyDeleteIt was in 1955 that the decision to make something fresh was taken at Selly Oak, being the next step to discover what the motorcycle world really wanted
When the answers were sorted out, one fact emerged predominantly: what the riding public wanted was a machine with the chracteristics of a motorcycle and the weather-proofing of a scooter
Except when push came to shove, the people decided they would rather spend their money on a more conventional bike. Ask people what the want and they will say they want the sensible potion. But when it comes to laying down their hard earned cash the heart over-ruled the head!
And so the Arrow was born to be as close to a conventional bike as you could get with a large beam frame, and trailing link forks
The Leader did sell very well in its first couple of years before the market was undermined by Japanese imports and Ariel was starved of funds by BSA. Sales were so strong initially that Ariel stopped production of its four stroke range. This left an opening for a new, sports bike, which of course was the Arrow. The Arrow was also a success and the was 'Bike of the Year' in 1960.
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