Easy Cruiser inspired custom build based on the award-winning Royal Enfield Meteor 350 – from Ironwood Motorcycles’ Creative Director & Founder, Arjan van den Boom
Ironwood Motorcycles, based out of their Amsterdam custom workshop, have launched “The Starship Meteor” – a stripped back, beefed-up interpretation of an affordable urban cruiser.
Since its launch at the end of 2020, the Meteor 350 has swiftly built somewhat of a cult following – winning multiple awards and plaudits right around the world. Praised for its build quality, retro styling and design refinement – as well as the remarkable price point for a motorcycle that offers so much more than the sum of its parts – it provides a pretty remarkable blank canvas to then stamp your own personality on.
The challenge was therefore laid down by the in-house Custom Team at Royal Enfield’s UKTC to Ironwood Motorcycles and their Creative Director & Founder, Arjan van den Boom – to interpret their own ideal Easy Cruiser, which would allow them to discover the place they called home in a whole new light, and turn as many heads in the process.
Says Arjan van den Boom, of Ironwood Motorcycles “The meteor ticks a lot of boxes as stock but it was our task to spice it up a bit more. As a base package the Meteor is pretty hard to beat for the budget-friendly rider. Ultimately, we wanted to retain this important element of accessibility and entry into the world of motorcycling and motorcycle customisation that the Meteor offers – but of course add our unique Ironwood creative touch to the build.
We received a Meteor Fireball Yellow from the team at Royal Enfield and immediately rode it as much as we could around the streets of Amsterdam to get accustomed to the feel and ergonomics of the motorcycle before taking it apart. As the riding position is already super comfortable and balance is refined, we want to retain as much of the original Meteor DNA as possible. Smaller-displacement motorcycles too often get classified as starter bikes, which is a shame. Our goal was to give the Meteor a helping of our unique Ironwood sauce and an overall beefier appeal through some performance parts upgrades, but to ensure the core Meteor identity shone through.
We had a very clear visual identity that we wanted to develop, inspired largely by my love for all things Star Wars! We decided on blacking out lots of the component parts in order for the amazing “Meteor Rain” paint job by Royal Kustom Works to really stand out on the tank. The Black fork gaiters, black supercross handlebar, custom fenders, the fat chunky rubbers from Continental and the piggyback shock absorbers from YSS all compliment this gnarly look
The CNC seat post, our signature floating bobber seat, further adds to the overall custom look of the motorcycle and the diamond pattern on the seat upholstery has all been finished by hand by Miller Kustom Upholstery. The Biltwell grips, Motogadget indicators on the front and the Kellermann 1000DF rear lights, together with the custom piping breathing through an Akrapovic muffler results in a stunning little Urban Cruiser that packs a punch well above its weight. Every time when you fire up this air-cooled one cylinder engine a throaty growl emerges from the race exhaust and makes you just want to hit the roads. Mission accomplished!”
Says Adrian Sellers, head of Royal Enfield’s Custom Program; “The creative minds at Ironwood have absolutely nailed the brief we sent through to them and we’re delighted with the end results. Importantly, the core identity of the Meteor 350 – a motorcycle that we know provides such a fantastic base platform for creative expression – has been retained and embraced. This build reinforces how important accessibility is to us as a brand, and how much can be achieved with a little imagination. Full credit to Arjan and the wider Ironwood team – this sits as the first full custom build we’ve done with the Meteor, and marks an important and exciting milestone for this 350 engine platform.”
The Ironwood Custom Meteor 350 will be on show at EICMA 2021 in Milan at the end of November.
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