Quite an impressive machine, lots of 1930s style..and although 'Second Line', probably the only RE model with with intended operational theatre provenance.
Am over the moon with it!! only the Dutch DVLA, the RDW have cancelled all appointments for Friday and rest of the month to have the bike tested for registration documents (due to the Corona crisis), guess I have to ride it with the French plates!
The perimeter rail is indeed for a Halftrack, all early M2 and M4's had them, there were even 2 types, this is the later more easy to produce type;
Lifting it off was a doddle with a car lift;
The tyre on the bike is an NOS John Bull one (found at the Shepton Mallet jumble), almost the same as my front one on the bike, Ron didn't like the idea of a quick tyre change on the rear wheel!!!
So here it is at home (now safely in the living room!);
Thanks everybody for help and parts for this quick (but not without major problems) restoration, I could not have done it, not ever having worked on one of these models before! So that's why I asked Ron to do his "magic"
All that remains is some small fettling, had it running already though! and to carefully sand the front number plate, as it might have the C number under the layers of paint, normally the engine would have had the C number stamped on it, but not on this one, not erased either, so bit mysterious.