Valentine Page (1891–1978)England and Wales deaths
Retrieved 2015-01-12 was a British motorcycle designer, who worked for several of the UK's leading marques, including Ariel, Triumph, and BSA. Page was an innovator whose radical designs include the Triumph 6/1,

BSA Gold Star The BSA Gold Star is a motorcycle made by BSA from 1938 to 1963. They were 350 cc and 500 cc single-cylinder four-stroke production motorcycles known for being among the fastest bikes of the 1950s. Being hand built and with many opt ...

BSA A7 The BSA A7 was a 500cc motorcycle model range made by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at their factory in Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. The range was launched in 1946 using a long stroke engine. An improved version based on the B ...

and BSA M20, the J.A.Prestwich engine of the

Brough Superior SS100 The Brough Superior SS 100 is a motorcycle which was designed and built by George Brough in Nottingham, England in 1924. Although every bike was designed to meet specific customer requirements—even the handlebars were individually shaped—s ...

, and the

Ariel Leader The Ariel Leader was a British motorcycle produced by Ariel Motorcycles between 1958 and 1965. A radical design, the Leader was fully enclosed with an integral windscreen and was the first British motorcycle to have optional flashing indicators ...

J.A Prestwich

Val Page served his apprenticeship as a motorcycle engineer and designer with J.A. Prestwich. Page designed the engines used in the Brough Superior SS100 and SS80 luxury motorcycles, and developed the racing motorcycles which made riders such as

Bert le Vack Herbert 'Bert' le Vack (1888 London – 16 September 1931 Berne, Switzerland) was a motorcycle world speed record holder throughout the 1920s and earned the nickname the 'Wizard of Brooklands' for his exploits at Brooklands. An expert racing ...

famous.

Ariel Motorcycles

Page spent most of his career with Ariel Motorcycles, which he joined in 1925. Eventually, he became chief designer and developed a new range of motorcycles for the 1926 season. Starting with an advanced engine, Page had to wait until 1927 before a suitable frame and cycle parts were designed. These formed the basis for what was to be the

Ariel Red Hunter The Ariel Red Hunter was the name used for a range of Ariel single-cylinder and twin-cylinder motorcycles. They were designed by the firm's chief designer Val Page in 1932 around an overhead-valve single-cylinder engine he developed six years ea ...

, which continued successfully until Ariel ceased production of four strokes in 1959.

Triumph

Page left Ariel in 1932 to become chief designer at the rival Triumph Motorcycles where, with Edward Turner, he developed Triumph's first parallel twin, the model 6/1, and a range of singles, including a 150cc two-stroke and 250, 350 and 500cc four-strokes.

BSA

Moving to BSA in 1936, Page designed all new models (except the V-twins) including the Empire Star, which was developed into the high performance production BSA Gold Star, named in celebration of Wal Handley's 100 mph lap time at the Brooklands circuit. The innovative Gold Star had a single cylinder 500 cc engine with twin pushrods operating double-coil springs and overhead valves. The pushrod tunnel was an integral casting in the cylinder block. Page also designed the dependable BSA M20 motorcycle, of which 125,000 saw wartime use.

Return to Ariel

After the war he returned to Ariel where he designed the monocoque Ariel Leader in 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Val 1891 births 1978 deaths British motorcycle pioneers British motorcycle designers