I've ridden many bikes over the last 27 years or so. My first bike was a Greeves 250 with a Villiers 4T engine and since then I've gone through the range, from a Mobylette 50 to a Zl. My current bike is the new Kawasaki Z1000.
I lost my left leg through the knee at the tender age of 20 and spent the following years changing gear by drilling a hole in the heel of my boot, jamming it onto the gear lever and yanking it up and down from the hip (an experience described in a previous Open House submission). A few years ago the NABD sorted me out with a Klicktronic thingy and life became a lot easier.
So I enjoy my bikes. 2 wheels, the open road, flicking through the twisty bits, man and machine in perfect harmony blah, blah, blah ...you get the picture.
And then, a couple of years ago, the madness took me.
"I think I fancy a trike" I mused, downing another pint, "no worries about crash hats and leathers - just get on the thing and ride it. It'll be easier for the missus and if I get a 3 seater then we can all go on hols on it......" I had convinced myself in no time. So Cliff said (for it was he who had to listen to these ramblings) "I've got an Alfa Romeo trike you can have for a small consideration" And the deal was done.
It turned up some time later. The trike had been built several years earlier and used for a while before passing on to Cliff, getting itself nicked and then recovered again in the meantime. By the time it got to me it wasn't a pretty sight.
Most of the running gear was junk, the electrics were mostly missing and the engine was full of water. The only thing worth keeping was the frame and that needed some TLC as well.
So I threw it all away, apart from the frame which I re-welded and re-designed for 3 seats and then had it powder coated. A second hand Alfa 33 was found in the small ads and I stripped out the engine and electrics ready to transplant.
The running gear was sourced from breakers yards and custom mags and gradually the whole thing came together.
I really wanted this machine to look and feel like a bike trike rather than a car trike and this involved some design decisions. I needed to convert the clutch to hand operation and leave my artificial left leg with nothing to do. The solution was to move the gearstick to the right hand side and fit a VFR clutch master cylinder - I could pull in the clutch with my left hand, change gear with my right and then replace my right hand on the throttle twist grip to accelerate. Perfect. 
Oh no it wasn't.
The volume of fluid in the bike master cylinder was sufficient to move the car slave cylinder about 2mm. It didn't even get close to disengaging the clutch. What to do? Out came the school reference books....volume of a cylinder...volume vs length...what fun I had. The calculations and design for a new slave cylinder were sent off to CS Engineering who manufactured a billet alumunium unit. And it works! No-one was more surprised than me - not at the the workmanship (which was great) but at the success of my long forgotten schoolboy maths. Flushed with success, I renewed my efforts to get my daughter to study, "you see Kirsty - you may need that pointless mathematical formula someday." She said she didn't really think she'd be building a trike in the future and I said that wasn't the point. We agreed to disagree.
In the meantime, the trike was coming along nicely. Funds and time meant it tended to happen in fits and starts and a love/hate relationship had started to develop - sometimes it's best to walk away when you get the urge to reach for that club hammer.
And around 2 years after that fateful conversation it's finally finished. It's turned out more or less how I imagined it should, and for a first attempt I'd say it's not bad. There's been loads of help and advice along the way and my thanks go out to all of you who've contributed.
But that's not quite the end of my tale. Remember - I'd never ridden a trike before and now was the time of the inaugural run out. Bloody hell, it felt weird. The first 20 miles were spent wishing I had done something better with the last 2 years of my life. The next 20 and I started to enjoy it. At the beginning of May I took it down to the seaside for a 100 mile round trip and it was a real craic. I've now realised that it's not going to turn turtle in the corners and my gear changes are getting a little slicker. It's very different to 2 wheels but I'm really happy to have the option of both machines. Maybe it wasn't madness after all-

Engine: Alfa Romeo boxer 1490cc
Gearbox: 5 speed Alfasud, hand clutch conversion
Frame: Custom, powder coated by Cray Metal Finishers, Dartford, Kent 
Front end: VN1500 / Dragstar 
Rear wheels: MWS Morgan, Harley fenders 
Electrics: By owner 
Paint Automaster, Medway City Estate, Strood, Kent 
Other stuff: RSR Fasteners, Custom Fasteners, Cycle Haven, Kent Bearings, Just Suds, Fiamma