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I have been mad about motorbikes from a very early age, largely due my father having owned various motorcycles up to me being about seven years of age. I never thought I would ever be able to ride a motorcycle of my own due to having restricted use of my right hand, the nerves in my right arm/hand having been damaged at birth. At fifteen I got an opportunity to ride an old motorbike on private land, and found to my surprise that I could manage to use both the throttle and, (with some practice), the front brake lever controls.
So, at sixteen I applied for my provisional licence advising the medical division at the DVLA of my disability and after the usual medical checks they agreed to issue me with the said licence.
At sixteen I owned a couple of the usual sixteener mopeds and at seventeen moved up to a Suzuki X7 and then a Yamaha 250LC. I passed my bike test during the following year, and progressed to a Terry Beckett tuned Yamaha 350LC.
Three virtually trouble free biking years later, I was involved in a hit and run accident, (a stolen car emerged from a side street and struck me side-on) putting me in hospital for two months. The bike ended up a wreck and unfortunately had to be sold for spares or repairs. After coming out of hospital, due to pressure from my family, and my wife expecting our first child, I did not really have any option but to turn to four wheels as funds would not stretch to both.
I had always said that once my children were older and I could afford to, I would once again buy a bike of my own. During the next twenty years I had always kept very much in touch with the biking world, going to numerous race meetings, rallies and shows, riding pillion with friends on rides out, but all the time wishing I had a bike of my own.
At the beginning of 2002, I was finally in a position to go out and purchase my own motorbike once again, and proceeded to various local motorcycle showrooms, where I eventually settled on a Honda Hornet 600. Once riding the bike, I found that I was having a great deal of trouble reaching for the front brake lever and so over the years my disability had obviously deteriorated, restricting the use of my right hand even more. I asked a few bike shops if they knew of any adaptions or conversions available for moving the front brake lever over to the left hand side of the handlebars, but drew a blank. I thought that my biking days may be over before they had re-started.
One night whilst surfing the net, trying to find a solution to the above problem, I came across the NABD web site, and from this I managed to contact Billy, the adaptions officer by phone the next day. He very kindly sent me some information on what the NABD was all about, with an application form to join. I promptly returned the form and with the arrival of my membership card was information about the grant scheme and a list of engineers who carried out adaptions in my part of the country. I spoke to a few of these engineers who suggested a thumb brake conversion, but on further investigation realised it would only slow the bike and not actually stop it.
Whilst reading one of the bike magazines one evening I spotted an advert showing a pull type radial front brake/clutch master cylinder and lever from a company called Spiegler, the master cylinder being offered in various diameters. I spoke to PDQ who supply the unit, who confirmed that it could be used for a twin disc front brake, if a 20mm master cylinder was used and that it was available in left or right hand forms.
So whilst at the GMEX Motorcycle Show in Manchester (Jan 2003), I spoke to Ian and Anthony from Boom Trikes in Bolton, about the above adaption being carried out. I visited their workshops with the bike in the February and the work was carried out in the May.
The lever/reservoir is a really neat piece of engineering ,but the work of fitting it was more involved than first thought, having to firstly use wider handlebars to give the room to mount both the clutch and brake levers on the same side, the clutch lever mount had to be altered to fit and the wiring looms/cables also had to be re-routed. The were no mirror mounts left because the originals were attached to the original front brake lever unit which was removed and the other had to be cut off the clutch lever mount so it would fit on the bars alongside the new brake lever. This meant new mirror clamps had to be fitted in their place.
It was originally intended to have the clutch leaver mounted above the brake lever as it is more frequently used, but due to the lack of space the levers had to mounted the opposite way round. It took a little getting used to at first, but it is now second nature. The new lever requires very little effort at all to use, giving more feel than the standard lever and with the addition of the braided hoses the front brakes are now better than ever.
Words cannot describe how good it feels to be back motorcycling again, regaining the freedom I have missed so much for so long.
I would like to say a very big thanks to Billy and all at the NABD for all their help and the generous donation towards the cost of my adaption. Also thanks to Ian and Anthony at Boom Trikes who did an excellent job, and last but not least all the people who have donated money and organised the fund-raising events to support the NABD, helping many people like myself to keep on biking.
Thanks again.
Alan Parker
This NABD grant of £400.00 was sponsored by a donation made by Fowlers of Bristol
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