Gertrude NABD article 2007

I'd like to introduce you to Gertrude, my trike, yes she is actually registered as Gertrude Tricycle. Gerty is a 1986 Yamaha FZX 750 Fazer that has been triked by Paul and the guys at Trike Design, Caerphilly, Wales.

I've always wanted a bike and to go to bike rally's but being a paraplegic since the age of 18 months old, after an escape plan and a trip to the ice cream van went a bit array, meant it wasn't going to happen. I had both legs completely amputated while in my teens. The next best thing was to have a trike, which as far as I knew would have to have been made from a car and I'd have to be a passenger. Me a passenger, Well that's one thing that will never happen! So all thoughts of bikes, trikes and attending rally's went out the window, Well you couldn't go to a bike rally in a car, could you!?

The years went by, life went in a different direction and dreams got forgotten. Then last year, 2006, I met Trev, who was into bikes, rally's and had built his own chopper. We were only friends but he was living the life I wanted to live so I asked him to build me a trike. Unfortunately building a trike is totally different than building a bike and neither of us had the space or the know how to do it, so again I put it to the back of my mind. However, I loved listening to all his stories of bike rally's, bike rides, the people, the places and all the antics. To be honest I felt left out and a teeny bit jealous.

Then early in 2007 aged 39, I got lost following someone with Sat nav and ended up going past 'Into the Valley'. There were all these bikes and trikes going in through the gates as I passed, I had to battle the car to stop it following them. That was it, I decided there and then that I was going to have a trike, not a car trike but a bike trike. Again I asked Trev to help me make it a reality and he gave me the number of NABD. First thing Tuesday morning, it was a bank holiday weekend, I was on the phone to them, Thursday the Open House Magazine and membership forms arrived and I found out that the 'You've been nabbed' rally was that weekend. I asked Trev to go with me as I was nervous about going on my own but it was too short notice for him, he did assure me that I'd be fine tho. So Friday afternoon with tent and gear in the car, I set off for my very first bike rally. What a weekend!! I won't go into detail but I met some great people, drank far too much and had an incident with a tent peg which resulted in a broken nose and that was only the Friday night. Saturday I went round the trade stalls looking for info on how I'd go about getting a trike that I could ride. That's how I came to meet Paul from Trike Design and with a bit of help from a fellow biker, my brain had been so well pickled the night before that I needed someone to translate for me, I told Paul what I was looking for, well, it was more an idea of what I was looking for as I wasn't sure just knew how I wanted to feel when I saw it, and how limited I was on funds. Paul told me that they had a trike back at the work shop in Wales which he reckoned would fit the bill and that I might be eligible for a NABD grant. Trev was the first to see the trike, as he was working in the area, and from the pictures he sent me and what he told me about it I knew I had to see it. So Gerty and I were set to meet and when we did it was love at first sight.

I would love to say that from first seeing Gerty to having her delivered to Hull was easy, but she needed extensive modifications in order to make her suitable for me to ride independently. She needed a Klicktronic gear changer and a thumb brake fitted, these were supplied through a NABD grant along with '790 towards fitting, thank you NABD. She also needed a reverse gear box which meant Paul and the guys had to dismantle the back end and totally rebuild it in order for the gear box to fit, a wheelchair rack on the left hand side, a backrest for me and a small one for my daughter and a rack for all the camping gear.

Gerty finally arrived on the 27th September 2007 and she's an absolute stunner of a trike, well worth the wait. The guys at Trike Design were fantastic in the respect that they listened to what I wanted and didn't try to impose limitations on me by trying to persuade me to go for a car trike or car seats, instead they took my sketchy image and made it a reality. I felt goose bumpy all over as she came out the back of the transit and all I wanted to do was show her off to everyone I knew. But I have to take my B1 test, light or three wheeled vehicle test, first as I'm only licensed to drive/ride an automatic vehicle. My test is on the 11th October 2007, it's a bit of a close one considering I've never even rode a push bike let alone change gear, use a choke or a clutch. But this year I've done 7 rally's in the car, next year I will be doing them on Gerty!!