Where to start? At the beginning I suppose. It was 6th of April 1970 when my world was turned upside down. I had a good job felling timber in the woods and saving hard as I was thinking of emigrating to New Zealand. When that afternoon while winching some trees to the roadside they caught on an old tree root causing the front end of the tractor to come of the ground and I was thrown over the back end into the power drive shaft which was rotating about 8000 rpm. My leg was caught up in the shaft, it was pulling one way and I was pulling the other, and it split in the middle leaving my leg dangling with both of the bones sticking out my leg. My foot was only held on with about 2" of the back skin and a small amount of muscle. The strange thing was that I did not feel any pain at the time, shock yes, but no pain.
That was only the start of the problems as the winch cable was still attached to the trees about 50 yards away and my work mate was over half a mile away self preservation must have kicked in as I managed to get back on the tractor and put it in gear. I had to have two attempts before the winch cable was pulled out of the winch end of the tractor. I drove it to where my work mate was, and it was a good thing that he had the sense to apply a tourniquet to it as there was blood everywhere. He got me into the back seat of the car, stopped at the nearest house for them to make a 999 phone call, then set off for the nearest hospital which was 20 mile away. We did 18 miles and the ambulance made 2, a quick transfer then into Berwick hospital the only lucky bit was that it was the only day of the week when the orthopaedic surgeon from Ashington hospital had his clinic at Berwick. They stuck drips in all over the place as by this time my blood was getting in short supply. After a 6 hour operation there was no one more surprised than me to see that I still had my leg, but after three days in intensive care they decided I was stable enough to transfer to the main hospital at Ashington but complications set in and when asking the nurse what that awful smell was I knew what was coming next when they said it was my leg. Gangrene had set in so there was no choice to be made as my left leg had to come off just below my knee cap. I have still got my knee joint just. It was 3 months later before I was allowed to go home and in those days we had to wait 6 months for a prosthesis to be fitted. I had a 500 AJS at home which had the gears on the right side and I had a front brake. The rear brake was there, but I had nothing to operate it with, until I got my artificial leg and the thought of not riding it for at least 6 months did not go down very well so I decided to fit a sidecar to it. Also the DVLA wanted my licence returned (and it took 15 year to get my full motorcycle licence back} if I wrote down about the escapades that I had over the next 7 years with the combo it would fill the full copy of Open House. Anyway we all know what happens next, boy meets girl, gets married, have a couple of children, and no money for bikes etc.
In 1981 I had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. In 2001 the arthritis that had developed in my right leg and knee {after doing the work of two for thirty years) got so bad I had to have my knee taken out and replaced with a new metal knee joint. So I was going well with a wooden left leg and a metal knee in my right leg. Every one thought that I was crazy to want to get back on a bike {well they might be right}.
Onto the trike. My two younger brothers were visiting one day later that summer both very much into bikes {Kevin has a Kawasaki ZXR 1200, Frank has a Yamaha XJR1200} when a Motorcycle club went passed the door and in the middle of them was a red trike. We all just looked at each other and I said "one of those will do me nicely". So on to the internet, after a lot of searching we found a site called NABD I just could not believe what I was reading about people with disabilities a lot worse off than me riding bikes and trikes! I had not even seen one until that afternoon. What I had been missing out on.
Anyway I sent of the form to join the NABD that night.
Geraldine my eldest daughter was getting married that year so the trike was put on hold until the summer of 2002 partly as I was still building up the strength of my right leg after the total knee replacement of my right knee and the bank balance had to recover from the wedding but the plans were started. I had always liked the Goldwings and as a plus they were shaft driven. So wedding over, a phone call to Billy and he suggested that I apply for a grant. At this time I did not have a bike but I knew where there was a GL 1100 frame.
We thought it would be a simple job to get an engine but it took over three months to find one and it was only after I joined the GWOCGB that I found one but it was in Buckinghamshire three hundred miles away so after we got it here I sent off a application to the NABD for a grant and was pleased to get a grant to help with the conversion.
The photo's are of the finished trike, also one of the Klicktronic gear change which was so simple to fit. All we needed to do was get a 1" longer rear engine bolt and it fitted straight on with no complications at all. Thanks must be said to John & Terry at the Golden Square Garage, Berwick Upon Tweed, for the building of the trike and for the quality of the workmanship (and for putting up with me nearly living there). We made a start on 9th of April after we got the notification of the grant from the NABD. We had tried to get it finished for the NABD Rally at York on the 9th of May, but we ran out of time. I made it, but sadly the trike was not finished until the next week on the 14th of May but 43 days from start to being on the road finished was exceptional.
Thanks must also go to my wife Monica for her understanding and support after me not being on a bike for 25 years. Kevin and Frank my younger brothers for their help and the inspiration to start all this.
Also for Brian, for bringing the engine up from Buckinghamshire, as he had to drive all the way back again a round trip of 600 miles.
Last but not least the NABD for the grant and advice what a great job you lads and lasses do to help all these disabled bikers to get back on the road.
Thank You all.

This NABD grant of £870.00 was sponsored by a donation from The East Leeds Lions MCC.