MAiNTENANCE CoRNER

By Tony Gray, Member #3905

Iparked Rex the Kwaka in a very crowded carpark at the Ray Owen HMCCQ concourse day at Canungra. The ground was soft after recent rain so I put a side-stand pad under Rex’s foot and readied to start looking around the carpark bikes. It took another 20 minutes before my tour started so what went wrong? It was the bike and rider that arrived and parked next to me that caused the delay. Ray from Wynnum was mounted on an older Kawasaki W800 twin so nothing special there. I loaned him my spare side-stand pad for his bike and we started to chat. There was a very obvious modification to Ray’s bike that immediately aroused my curiosity.

Ray is a retired Fitter & Turner who worked for Smiths Crisps at Tingalpa. His son had a bike accident that cost him his left foot and lower leg. He wanted to continue to ride bikes but his prosthetic lower leg was unable to operate a standard left hand gear shift lever. Remember back to Mick Doohan after his 1992 accident at the Dutch GP at Assen where the might of Honda was called upon to design and build a thumb brake lever for Mick as he had lost movement in his right ankle. Well Ray was faced with a similar problem for his son and came up with this ingenious solution calling on his work experience and knowledge of pneumatic operating systems. The bike is fitted with a pressurised air cylinder (an old fire extinguisher) which feeds compressed air to a 3 position 5 port open centre pump. The pump then raises or lowers the conventional gear lever to change gear via a system of hoses and a double acting air actuator. There is a ‘rest position’ (the open centre) of the 3 position valve where the supply line to the valve is blocked thus allowing the gear shift to

be operated in the conventional manner (when Ray is riding the bike). The air pump is activated from a lever under the throttle grip – flick up to change up a gear and down to drop down a gear. I didn’t ask for a test ride but Ray said it works a treat even though it might look a bit agricultural.

I was very impressed with the set-up and the skill of a Father determined to help his son achieve his goal to continue to enjoy riding a bike. Never underestimate what can be achieved in the shed with a bit of thought (and a lot of skill).