[Moto] The Starship Meteor: Ironwood Motorcycles' latest creation on a Royal Enfield Meteor

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Following the news that the Meteor 350 has been awarded the MCN Retro Bike of the Year award, Ironwood Motorcycles has unveiled from its Amsterdam-based motorcycle customizing workshop, "The Starship Meteor" motorcycle, a refined yet beefed-up interpretation of a budget urban cruiser.     

Since its launch in late 2020, the Meteor 350 has quickly become a cult bike, especially after winning several awards and being widely acclaimed around the world. Praised for its build quality, retro styling and refined design, as well as its outstanding price, it is a motorcycle that offers much more than the sum of its parts, "The Starship Meteor" represents a wonderful blank canvas for the customer to imprint their own personality on.
 

The in-house customization team at Royal Enfield's UK Technology Centre (UKCT) challenged Ironwood Motorcycles and its founder and creative director Arjen van den Boom to interpret their own ideal Easy Cruiser, allowing them to rediscover the place they already knew as home, but now in a totally new and different light, while surprising and catching the attention of many.

As Arjan van den Boom of Ironwood Motorcycles explains, "While the Meteor already meets many of the expectations of a production bike, we set out to give it an extra twist. As a basic package, the Meteor is difficult to upgrade for a customer looking for a budget bike.  Ultimately, we wanted to maintain this important element of accessibility and entry into the world of motorcycling and motorcycle customization that the Meteor offers us, but at the same time add our creative Ironwood touch."  

"After the arrival of a Meteor Fireball Yellow from the Royal Enfield team, we quickly jumped on it to try it out and ride it as much as we could on the streets of Amsterdam to get used to its feel and ergonomics before analyzing it," adds Arjan. "Since the riding position is already particularly comfortable in itself and the balance is highly precise, we decided to retain the Meteor's DNA as much as possible.  Small-displacement bikes are often categorized as novice bikes, which is a shame. Our goal was to spice up the Meteor with our unique Ironwood sauce and give it a beefier appeal by upgrading some of its performance parts, but making sure that the Meteor's identity shone through at all times.
 

We had a visual identity we wanted to develop that was inspired by my passion for all things Star Wars.  We decided to black out many of the components to make the Royal Kustom Works "Meteor Rain" paint job stand out, especially on the tank. Black fork bellows, black Supercross handlebars, custom fenders, wide and fat Continental tires, and YSS combo shocks all contribute to this combative touch." 

"The CNC seat base, our signature floating bobber seat, finishes off the bike's custom look, while the seat upholstery has been finished entirely by hand by Miller Kustom Upholstery. Biltwell grips, Motogadget front turn signals and Kellermann 1000DF taillights, along with the custom manifold breathing through an Akrapovic muffler, finish off a beautiful urban cruiser that roars louder than any other bike of its weight. Every time you start this air-cooled single-cylinder engine you hear a throaty growl emerge from the sport exhaust that makes you want to get on the bike and hit the gas.