Royal Enfield Meteor Minor Restoration -Adopting My Meteor, The Background Story

Royal Enfield Meteor Minor Restoration
BACKGROUND

 I would imagine that most people who choose to take on a project of restoring a bike in such a poor state of repair would be seasoned classic bike enthusiasts. -They would carefully select a bike which they feel confident that they could overhaul to a decent standard by assessing the motorcycles requirements and measuring it against their own level of ability. This is not the case with me. I am a complete novice when it comes to motorcycles and the biggest thrill I have ever had  on two wheels was when I rode down a particularly steep hill on my Raleigh Lizard push bike aged 12.
This project was not something I was looking for- I have 60hr a week job and a baby on the horizon around xmas time. This was bestowed upon me by my darling wife whom has decided it was time for me to get a new hobby.- Mrs Meteor does like to keep me busy.

 I learned about my new obsession when i awoke in a London hotel room one Sunday morning and Mrs Meteor rolled over and handed me a photograph of a restored Royal Enfield Meteor Minor. It was the morning of my 32 birthday (which is why we made a trip to the big smoke from sunny south Wales). “What an awesome wife” I thought to myself  still somewhat blurry eyed from the night before and wondering if I was still dreaming

–“she`s only gone and bought me this fantastic looking motorbike…mint condition too….i`ll do a direct access motorcycle licence and by xmas I`ll have bought all my leathers and I`ll be away!” Images of  weekends cruising around  the winding roads of mid wales raced through my mind and I couldn`t wait to be enjoying the fruits of some other suckers hard graft on making the bike look so good!”
“Mrs M” I proclaimed “this is the best pressie you could have ever got for me, where did you get it from, it must have cost a pretty penny?”
“Oh…. You`ve got it all wrong” she tittered. “The bike in the picture isn`t “THE” bike. “YOUR” bike is that one that’s been festering in my dads shed for the last twenty years- All you need to do is drive to Pembroke when we get back from London and pick it up! And hey, I`ve bought you a shed to keep it in, all you have to do is make a base for it- don`t worry, I have ordered 2 tons of chippings for you to shift round the back garden as soon as we get home”                                                                             

To cut a long story short, it turns out that her old man had pulled this motorcycle out of a barn near Llanfalteg in Pembrokshire belonging to the mysterious Mr Taylor. My Dad in law had full  intentions of doing it up during his spare time. But life moves pretty slowly in West Wales,  and, about 20 years later, it became apparent to “old man meteor” that it was time to hand the torch over to me.
I have worked as an aircraft engineer for 15 years now, so I have been known to turn the odd spanner when the mood takes me, but regularly serviced aircraft with clean components and gas turbine engines are a far cry away from this rusting old beast.

Nevertheless my friends, I fully intend to restore this classic bike to all its origanal glory. I plan to write the coming blogs as a means of documenting my progress and (hopefully) demonstrating how a complete amateur like myself can begin a project like this and take it through a complete overhaul.

As with all good motorsport teams, I will hopefully have a crack technical support team. This will comprise of:
1.) my old dad, -pictured with the bike by my shed, (outrageous socks and shoes combination) who assures me he has stripped and rebuilt clutches on the side of the road back in the day.
Interesting quote- 
"this will be a piece of piss to sort out".

2.) my father in law, -sat on triumph Bonneville, (in slippers with outrageous hair) -total nerd when it comes to anything old that has wheels.

So hold on tight fellow meteorites its going to be a bumpy old ride. As Captain Lawrence Oates once said    “ I`m just going outside* and and I may be some time”  (*outside = shed)