The Bike Experience
Charity to adapt motorcycles and help disabled bikers ride again
The Bike Experience is a charity which was set up in 2011 to help motorcyclists who have been disabled or paralysed get safely back on to a bike.
The charity was the idea of self-confessed adventure addict Talan Skeels-Piggins who became paralysed from the mid chest down after an accident in 2003. Despite only being given a 30% chance of survival after the accident he left hospital after six and a half months (instead of the predicted 18 months!) and headed home to restart his life.
When Talan got home he found that his sense of adventure and need for excitement were as active as ever and he decided that he would carry on living adventurously - why change the habits of a lifetime?
Talan Skeels-Piggins
So with this as his goal he began a programme of getting his fitness back and his dedication and hard work eventually enabled him to compete in the Bath half marathon in a wheelchair and enter the 2010 Winter Paralympics for team GB on a specially adapted sit-ski.
Despite his paralysis Talan also decided that giving up motorcycling was not an option for him, so he got a team of people with the right expertise together and they adapted his Suzuki GSXR1000K6 so that he would be able to ride it, and in 2009 he got back on and off he went.
Getting back on his bike was so inspiring for Talan that he decided that he wanted to give the same opportunity to other riders. With this aim in mind he started his charity which he called 'The Bike Experience' and managed to get funding from the Big Lottery Fund to buy a fleet of bikes, which he had adapted, so that others could ride again too.
The charity does not aim to get disabled riders back out onto the open road but helps them to enjoy the thrill of riding again in a safe, but still exciting environment, at Castle Combe Circuit in Wiltshire where it organises regular track days and events.
The riders ride adapted bikes suitable for any paraplegic, but they do need to have been motorcyclist before their accident/disability. They start by taking part in slow speed drills to familiarise themselves with the bikes and end up with an hour on the track.
They can also get expert advice on how to adapt their own bikes.
The Experience is free for riders as the charity covers the costs, but donations to the charity are gratefully received.
Riding at Castle Combe
Talan has three core values for his charity which are as follows:
FREEDOM – Giving back the feelings of independence through riding a motorcycle, thereby empowering individuals with the right of choice and equality, so that they can experience the passion and emotions that riding brings.
ACHIEVEMENT – Showing people that you can achieve great things when you believe you can, that you have a huge resource of power, courage and bravery inside you, to make the impossible into the possible and improve self-confidence.
EVOLUTION – Bringing together able-bodied and disabled people so that the established boundaries are broken down and myths of disability are deconstructed on both sides, allowing everyone to ride together, side by side.
This is what is achieveable in the words of a Bike Experience rider who had a go at Castle Combe in June 2011:
“After getting back to the pit lane, reaching a whopping 113 mph on my last lap, I had a grin ear to ear under that helmet of mine, which stayed there for days after.”
Ride on 'The Bike Experience'
Altogether a pretty inspiring and positive story about what you can achieve if you set your mind to it!
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