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As I write this I am just a couple of weeks away from my 43rd birthday, I will also have been disabled for exactly forty three years. I was born with Cerebal Palsy (an accident at birth) which caused brain damage and a twisted spine and legs.
This may seem bad and some days it feels really bad but I have been very lucky in that from day one I have had good people around me to pick me up when I am down. My parents never discouraged me from doing or trying anything, I only ever had encouragement even when I wanted to ride a motorbike. My dad taught me to ride and also wrote to DVLC to see if I would be allowed a licence.
Once my licence was eventually granted I was bought a bright yellow Yamaha FS1E for my sixteenth birthday. My riding style was a bit more unorthodox than most -I changed down by taking my foot off the foot rest and kicking the lever down. I changed up by hooking my foot under the gear lever and yanking it up. Over the following years I had a variety of bikes and of course I had managed to fall off most of them.
In 1982 I met Linda who enjoyed the same music as me and also liked bikes. We joined a bike club went to rallies, and on holidays with the bike which I had never done before. In 1988 we decided to start a family and I decided to sell the bike with the plan of getting into bike again when the kids were older.
As usual thing don't always go to plan. Being born disabled I never thought things would get any worse but they did! By 1999 I was suffering severe back pain and pain in my joints, due to unnatural wear in my joints caused by the Cerebal Palsy.
I eventually had to leave work, which is when depression really started (this is when families and friends rallied around me again).
I exercised, had physio and eventually regained a bit more of my mobility but I could not walk as far as I used to.
I have always enjoyed the countryside either fishing or just out with my family, but now I was limited to how far I could go. My need to be out doors started me thinking about bikes, it's not quite the same as a stroll in the countryside but a damn sight better than a car.
I was sat at my pc one evening in August 2003 and typed in disabled bikers not expecting anything when it came up with www.nabd.org.uk I was amazed to see so many adaptations for bikes and bikers with such a variety of disabilities.
I joined the NABD straight away (still not sure if I would ever get on a bike again) I e-mailed Billy quite a few times spoke to NABD members on the NABD publicity stands at the NEC and Manchester bike shows and decided it had to be a bike now or never.
I had decided that when/if I ever got a bike it would have to be a V-twin as the last bike I owned was a Moto Morini 500 V-twin and was the best bike I had ever ridden. I promised myself a Ducati Monster and only that bike would do. After several months of reading magazine articles my mind was swayed towards a Suzuki SV650S, a V-twin with Japanese reliability but V-twin character. It was also highly rated by every magazine I had read.
I contacted Bob at Kliktronic to see if he had fitted the system to a SV, which he had and kindly sent me a picture of one fitted.
On the 21st 0f January 2004 I went tyre kicking to the local bike shop and saw a blue SV650S, one owner, 20,000 miles on the clock, complete with all service receipts and repairs and immaculate condition. I bought it there and then, I did not try it or test it.
I had nightmares and regrets for a week after buying it until I plucked up the courage to take it for a spin. My legs would not work as they used to, so back in the garage it went until I heard if my NABD grant application had been successful.
My Kliktronic arrived on the 20th of February as did some additional brackets that Bob had made me for the Suzuki. Mallinders Motorcycles (Tel; 01977 604777) agreed to fit the system but could not fit it in until the 4th of March, that two weeks wait seemed like a lifetime but it was definitely worth the wait.
The bike was returned to me on the 5th of March, cleaned and polished with its Kliktronic fitted and fully functioning.
I have been on the bike every opportunity since its return, weather permitting. It is a fantastic piece of equipment and draws a lot of attention from other bikers wherever I park the bike especially when they see I how I walk when I get off.
I would like to thank Billy, Rick, Shirley and everyone else involved in the NABD for their help, encouragement and advice over the past few months and of course for the grant of my Kliktronic Gearchanger.
I would also like to thank Bob and Keith at Kliktronic for making the extra brackets required for my bike (which fit like a glove) and for designing a system to help disabled bikers get back on the road.
Also Nick at Mallinders Motorcycles, Castleford, tel; 01977 604777, for making such a wonderful job of the adaptions. Last but not least my wife Linda and the kids Laura, Alex and Daniel for putting up with me.
This NABD grant of ?400.00 was sponsored by donations raised by; Sara Babb (Flora 5K run) & The Sewer Rats MCC (Silsden)
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