Royal Enfield motorcycle cost only £7 but paid off in a lifetime of lessons

Before

John Allen, the UK artist who, as a lad, bought a corroded 1960 Royal Enfield motorcycle for £7, is featured in The Whitehaven News, his local newspaper.

I first wrote about John when I encountered his remarkable before-and-after pictures of the motorcycle, which he fully restored and still owns. It is a Meteor Minor Sports.

He recounted some of his early adventures on the bike for me: it was his sole transport for awhile.

A retired art teacher, John's second career as an artist and muralist is the primary subject of the article in the Whitehaven News. But the article also details his motorcycle racing career and the origin of his interest in motorcycles.

After

“In those days, you couldn’t afford to pay someone to repair your bike, so you learned how to do it yourself. It attached more sentimental value to bikes if you had worked on them and restored them yourself,” John told the Whitehaven News.

You can read the full account here.

John Allen's own website is John Allen, Motorcycle Artist.

John Allen and painting of Alan Oversby winning the 2007 Manx Grand Prix. (Whitehaven News)