A Long Time Coming

I have had Cerebral Palsy from birth in 1965 but it hasn’t stopped me fighting for things that I enjoy doing. From a young age, I have been interested in motorbikes.

I battled for my driving licence and passed my car test at the first attempt, since then I’ve been driving an adapted van with foot, head and elbow controls.

I’m 55 and my Dad (rest his soul) brought me up with the attitude that, “If you don’t try, how do you know you can’t do something.”

I had wanted a trike for many years but with being disabled and using a foot steering system in my van, we knew it would not be straightforward.

After much research and two other part-built failures, my personal assistant found out about the reversed trike, designed by Stuart Mills.

I was going to ask Derby University if they had any students who could help build something from scratch but then we decided to ring Stuart, the owner of Mills Extreme Vehicles, himself. After a long phone call back in February 2014 with him, I was put onto Road Track Race Ltd. in Nottingham.

I arranged a meeting with Paul Holmes at Road Track Race Ltd. back in March 2014. At the time, I knew he had capable engineers working for him who could build me a trike based on the R1 trike that they had already built, but modifying the frame to take an Aprilia Mana 850, which I had purchased because it had the fully automatic gear box. Paul Holmes at first said £14,000.00 and I just laughed and said I couldn’t afford that. He spotted my NABD jacket and I guess he was thinking there could be future work for his company, so he basically talked himself in to building it for £10,000 and he would cover anything above that price. But this was a verbal agreement between Paul and myself, said in front of David Alton (my PA) back in early March 2014. I agreed the total build price, on the road of £10,000 to be completed within 12 months so fitting it around other builds, he could wave the labour costs.

For this, I used some of my inheritance which I was left by my Dad when his bungalow finally sold and was split between 10 of us, plus a bank loan which started on 26th March 2014 over 5 years. Of which, I ended up with very little to show for.

Even then, Road Track Race Ltd. were dragging their feet. After 12 months, they had a rolling chassis

Road Track Race Ltd. was dissolved in August 2016 and according to Paul Holmes my trike build should have gone with Road Track Race Ltd. but as he said, “As a good will gesture, he salvaged my build and took it on himself. It has nothing to do with Exo Sports Cars.” Which was set up in January 2017

Paul was struggling with fitting the foot steering and knew of a company who adapts vehicles, so, my trike

was taken to the specialist company in the north, in October 2015. They fitted the foot steering and came up with a nifty idea to fit a seat riser sideways, to assist me to get in & out of the trike.

Paul asked them to do a few bits for the electrics while they had it, so the work undertaken by them came to £3,750.00, more than I expected so the grant of £2,000.00 I received from the National Association for Bikers with a Disability went to them and I had to cover the £1,750.00.

The last fitting was in Huddersfield, when I was giving the final check on their adaptions that they had done for me. I was concerned about the foot steering not having power assistance back then, but was told to try it and see how I went on so Paul collected the trike from them in January 2016.

Paul said he couldn’t use his own stainless -steel tanks now because of the fuel pump. He could not locate the original tank from the Mana donor bike so instead of getting on with things that could be done, like, mounting the pedals, fitting a handbrake and little fiddly bits like that, work stopped because he wanted it to go brum-brum before he did any more.

I had to arrange for the National Association for Bikers with a Disability to kindly pay the £2,000 to the adaption company. Normally they do not release the grant until the vehicle is completed but they understood the situation and kindly paid the company.

He had put the engine & back wheel in and got a low profile tyre on the rear wheel, which he made a big issue over but doing this changed the run of the chain, which caused other issues. Apart from this, nothing had moved forward for 19 months. My wonderful partner, (now wife) Angie kept going over to Nottingham to try and hassle the guy into doing something to the trike.

In June 2017, Angie had her head shaved at our local pub called The Leopard in Tutbury. The landlady sold hot-dogs for the week and gave us half the funds from that, to go towards getting somebody to finish the trike.

Owners to Paul which he wasn’t pleased about. I told him to deliver the trike with all parts that are required to finish the project.

I was left with a part-built trike, with a few parts supplied by Paul Holmes and then having to find somebody willing, capable and fairly cheap to get this trike finished for me.

Conrad, a very good friend who is a member of WozWolf Rally Club and a volunteer for Nottingham Blood Bikes, contacted a couple of trike builders to see if they could help but nobody stepped up to the challenge. After a couple of months, Conrad decided to take it on himself and cut down on his blood bike volunteering.

Over the past two years that Conrad has had my trike, he has worked wonders, calling in a lot of favours from people that he knows. It has basically gone from a frame with an engine that had no fuel to a fully road legal, running trike.

As the adaption company changed the “quick” steering rack that was first fitted to a standard rack, I was finding this too unresponsive. It had my old foot steering system fitted from my old Transit van but Conrad had this reconfigured to work with the electric powered steering system.

I have a powered driving seat, which lifts me and takes me over the side rail of the frame to make it easier for me to get in and out of the trike.

There is a metal frame around my seat, with buttons that operate the secondary controls, including head mounted indicator switches and some buttons mounted in the cover of the foot steering system which I can operate with my right foot.

Conrad has also added an electric powered ram so I can apply the handbrake at a touch of a button.

I also have an electric motor for reversing, this seems a bit underpowered for the weight of the trike but it will assist whoever is with me if required to back up. He also designed a carrier on the side of the trike to hold my manual wheelchair with one wheel removed and strapped to a rack on top on the bespoke fuel tank.

Conrad has done many hundreds (probably thousands) of hours of work during evenings, which he has all done for free. I have just bought parts as and when required, which came out of funds raised and some donations.

After many years of hoping and wanting to be on 3 wheels, the light at the end of the tunnel has been reached,

I am just about to try some skinnier wheels to see if this helps to make my steering easier. If this works, I can slowly build up my left leg muscles and then, in time, return to the nicer looking wide wheels that were supplied with the trike.

If I could turn back time, I would have stayed clear of Mr Holmes and would had gone down a different route, because this has caused many hours of worry and trouble for myself and other people, but, thanks to good friends and friends of friends, I will be riding my trike this year.

Chris “Timmaayy” Molesworth (Pics by Eddie Hancock & Chris)

Thanks to a few very special people, who are:

My wife Angie, who stuck by me and supported me all the way.

Conrad and his wife, TJ (TJ hasn’t complained about her husband spending hours of the evening in his garage, beavering away with my trike but I know she’ll be glad it’s finished.) Conrad, I know you don’t like praise but you are the Christmas Elf.

Also, Lee Sharp who has been helping Conrad when required.

WozWolf RC for supporting Conrad and myself while this has been going on.

A few other people that I would like to thank for their services, either heavily discounted or free.

Tim DeVos (tin man Tim)

Built a one-off bespoke fuel tank at cost. www.facebook.com/TIN-MAN-TIM162840014654304/?hc_location=ufi

John Pullara – digital speedo

Donated the exhaust can www.digital-speedos.co.uk

Steve Taylor – Taylor Made Wheels

Machine work to steering shaft www.taylormade-wheels.co.uk/index.php

Belmont Shot Blasting Ltd.

Needwood, sprayed the fuel tank and a lot of other bits shot blasted and sprayed www.belmontshotblasting.co.uk

The ex-landlady and all the customers who use to drink in the Leopard in Tutbury, Staffordshire in 2018

Unwanted MCC, Burton on Trent who had a whip round when Angie had her head shaved because they couldn’t make it, with another bucket that went around at their “Cock-out” rally in 2018.

And of course, the National Association for Bikers with a Disability, for their adaption grant.

The technical bit.

Power unit: Aprilia Mana 850cc which has the Auto gearbox option.

Steering: Foot pedal steering, electric assisted Snap-on steering wheel for when Angie drives.

Side raise & lowering driver’s seat

Secondary controls Foot and seat-arms mounted

Manual wheelchair carrier on side with wheel carrier on top of fuel tank

Rear facing camera to assist with reversing Reverse motor (Not the greatest)

Tow-bar For rallies to carry powere d wheelchair.

This grant of £2000 was possible through the combined donations of Picton Entertainments (Rally in the Woods), John Thompson and David Williams.