Emancipation!

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For those that don't know the back story about the accident that left me paralysed and wheelchair bound, and my gradual return to the 2 wheeled world, here's where you can catch up:

Grrrl – The Crash, The Story, The Pictures:
http://www.vfrdiscus...y-the-pictures/

4 Wheels Moves the Body, 2 Wheels Move Soul
http://www.vfrdiscus...long-with-pics/

Grrrl – Return to the 2 Wheeled World – Part I:
http://www.vfrdiscus...-wheeled-world/

Grrrl's Return To The 2-Wheeled World - PART II:
http://www.vfrdiscus...-world-part-ii/


So... to continue on from there, the person to sign me off basically got cold feet and suggested I go for a trike, and recommended the Can-Am Spyder. Grrr!!!

I’m sure there’s a post somewhere about me getting my trike licence on the Spyder, but I can’t find it anywhere,so here's a pic of me on the range

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Next we borrowed Spyder and headed off for a few days of riding and camping. Again, I’m sure there’s a thread about that somewhere too, but I can’t find it!

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The Spyder was fun and overall I did have a great time, but riding this thing is a lot of hard work for someone without full trunk control. You have to wrestle it around the corners and because it doesn’t lean over like a motorcycle your body is effected much more by centrifugal force (or g-forces, or inertia or whatever it is, haha – you physicists are welcome to elaborate on this). As I would turn right my upper body would be pulled to the left and vice versa. The harder you turn, the stronger the pull towards the outside of the turn. This was not ideal, so we kept looking for a better solution...

We found a vaguely similar thing overseas... Sometime later, a crate arrived and we collected it from customs...





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Everything finally unpacked!




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Wallah! She's ready to roll!
Beautiful machine huh?

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We found an industrial estate to start practicing in because it’s nice and quiet after hours. We chose a nice wide court which had a U-turn area at the end big enough for a truck to turn around. That was perfect for my first 2 rides.
Like the SV there is a button I push that switches this thing from being rigid and vertical to being able to lean freely like a motorcycle. We call it a “tilt lock”. At first I was quite nervous about pressing the button, it was just like the first few times I rode the SV really. That was a long time ago I guess, but once again I wasn’t sure how much my balance would come into it.

After this I graduated to a 1.5km long no thru road we found out the back of a ½ developed industrial estate. It was perfect! It had long sweepers, a roundabout and a few tighter turns towards the end, so it gave me a chance lean the thing over and see how I go. I found myself getting nervous at the roundabout the first couple of times, but I was relieved when it turned out not to be too difficult. Stewy suggested I try going right around the roundabout instead of straight through it and I remember being very nervous about doing that, but again it was actually easy enough, and quite fun. The trickiest part was doing the u-turn at each end with the frame rigid in “trike mode” and then riding away and pressing the button and switching into “bike mode”. Obviously I lock the thing vertical when I’m taking off from a stop or coming to a stop instead of putting my feet down, but it’s also really handy for slow speed riding and u-turns. When it’s locked vertical it handles like a trike. To turn right you turn the handle bars to the right and vice versa – there is no counter steering! Then when I switch the tilt-lock off it’s all counter steering. It messes with your head for a while I tell you! You really have to think about the way you steer it each time you switch from one to the other.




Here I am in the saddle.




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And here I am going round one of the sweepers. It looks so strange to see a trike leaning over – I know from driving around behind Stewy when he was testing it and tweaking it until it was right for me.  I rode up and down this 1.5km stretch a handful of times that week, in the evenings until it started to get dark (it gets dark way to early – daylight savings should start on the first day of Spring :p).



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THIS IS WHERE I START GETTING TO THE POINT OF THIS THREAD!


We decided I would be ok to try the open road, away from busy traffic and intersections, so a couple of weekends back, we drove out with the bikes on the trailer, to Briagolong. We parked the car at the back of the little servo in town, unloaded the bikes and geared up. Adam helped me onto my bike then dismantled my wheelchair and loaded it on the rack that BRIAN STILES made for us so that I could pillion on Adams bike for last year’s cup weekend trip...





Here I am mounted up and velco’d on at Briagolong, ready to go.



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And off we went... Stopping and starting is the trickiest part of riding for me now, so it was nice to be able to ride more than a few kilometres and really get into the swing of things. Once we were on the Dargo road I had 50km of beautiful winding road ahead of me, through some stunning countryside... I was feeling well balanced and comfortable on the bike, I was becoming more relaxed and my confidence was slowly growing. After a while I didn’t need to concentrate so intensely on the controls, they were starting to feel natural and I guess it all started to come back then.

I was just riding, cruising along and absorbing it all. I’d forgotten how much more “in touch” you are with the environment you ride through compared with sitting in a car, how you come across a patch of road where the eucalyptus smells stronger or different than usual, or the smell of someones campfire by the creek off to the side of the road, or the yucky smell of road kill. I’ve never seen so many poor dead wombats!

I noticed how the road looked, getting more blurred as it rushes towards you, it’s a perspective you just don’t get from a car. There were times where I was absorbed in all of this and simply in the SENSATION of riding that I had forgotten about everything else – any worries or cares were well and truly out the window and for the first time in nearly 6 years, absolutely nothing was wrong (it’s making my eyes a little bit soggy just thinking about that feeling as I type this now – it’s not often you feel like everything is right in the world (if ever)). I felt so... unconfined, if that makes sense? It was a strange thing to need to remind myself every now and then, that I am paralysed.

We pulled in at the Dargo Hotel for a celebratory beer and I finally got to debrief and reflect on everything that had just happened. My eyes may have got a little soggy through that conversation ;-)
Outside the pub we chatted with a couple of other riders that were fascinated by the mechanical marvel that is my bike. It’s a small world, the biking one – one (or both) of those guys posted photo’s of it on facebook, apparently it was one of your friends Chris Holmes?

We pulled in at the Dargo Hotel for a celebratory beer and I finally got to debrief and reflect on everything that had just happened. My eyes may have got a little soggy through that conversation ;-)
Outside the pub we chatted with a couple of other riders that were fascinated by the mechanical marvel that is my bike. It is a small world, the biking one... As it turned out, one (or both) of those guys posted photos of it on facebook. It turns out that Chris, one of my facebook friends, is also friends with the guy who posted the pics, so Chris already suspected that I had been to Dargo before I told anyone, haha.

This machine does attract a lot of attention, it is strange sight to see a trike leaning over around corners. We have had people on their bikes follow Stewy, weaving his way into the industrial estates until he stops where I would practice. They just have to see it up close and have a good look, ask questions etc.

We headed back the same way and I felt like I had to get used to it all over again, but after a few km’s it was starting to flow once more. We’d had no traffic on our way to Dargo, but on the way back I caught up to a few cars. I followed the first one for quite a while, happy with the pace he was setting but eventually he pulled over to let us pass (probably thought he was holding us up) but I found I did have a little more and we gradually pulled away from him. I was amazed – I’d been worrying that I would be the one holding up the cars, I thought I was travelling at learner pace – and I mean fresh learner pace!

I got back to Briagolong with 160km under my belt, a grin like a Cheshire cat under my helmet and a head and heart full of all sorts of emotions and it’s all thanks to you, Adam/Stewy.
What you have done for me is... is beyond words. What the hell can I say? Next I'm going to thank a few other people that were involved in helping this come together and I have a rough idea of what I might say, but for you I'm finding it much more difficult to find the right words to describe how I feel. Hmmm... Maybe I'll come back to you.

A big thank you goes out to:

Andy (Roarin) - for making the mounts for the mud guards and welding them – it was a very tricky job and they turned out better than expected considering what we gave you to work with - and the bike wouldn’t have passed Vic Roads without those.

Dave (Booga)  - for his help with the electronics. I got to witness you at work this time around, and Dave you’re a far bigger geek than I had previously realised (hehehe).
Carver – For his help with the programming of the chip

And of course, Adam's parent, Ian and Lyn - You guys have been an amazing support for us, and this project. Thank you for letting us clog up your garage with this bike and for putting up with all the parts and tools lying around while it was being worked on (and it still is!).
Lyn, Thank you for bringing us hot chocolates on those freezing cold nights and for feeding us when we were there late so I wouldn’t have to cook dinner when we got home.
Ian I think you, with your wealth of mechanical knowledge, were an invaluable support for Adam through this. You were always there for him to bounce ideas off you, to help nut out problems, or physically help out whenever it was needed.

Ok here goes. Adam, you are incredible. You are brilliant. I can’t thank you enough for your sleepless nights and your tireless efforts in making this happen for me. I expected to find a certain level of freedom with this, but you have given me a taste of a freedom far beyond what I expected to find because I never expected to forget about my paralysis and that for me is huge. That never happened on the SV (although there might have been potential for it), and it most certainly did not happen on the Spyder. Although it was fun, the nature of the Spyder actually reminds you of your paralysis constantly. So, even if that one ride had to be my last, I'm still happier for it. I wish I could find the words to express what this means to me, what you mean to me, but I can't seem to do you justice!

Maybe the Cheshire cat grin tells you enough.






At the Dargo Hotel where we stopped for our celebratory beer before heading back to Briagolong.



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Alas it did not have to be my last ride! We went out again last weekend :-)
This time we started in Moe, rode up to Thompson’s Dam, across to Walhalla, then back to Moe.

Andy came along with us... Since I’m quite slow (and he’s not!!!!) he had plenty of time to ride ahead and stop on the side of the road with his fab camera and take some action shots!
So I’ll post a few of those of so you can see the engineering marvel that is my bike, as strange (and awesome) as it looks as it tips in...
Thanks so much Andy!!




Well firstly, here’s Stewy with my dismantled wheelchair on the back of his bike:

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I'm excited about the riding to come now that the weather is starting to improve.




Thought I'd add a pic in at the end here to show you the maximum lean angle of this baby:

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Ahhh... Riding, it just makes me glow!

:happy:

* Does a little dance *

WooHOO....Riot Girl rides again!  That's the spirit.   :fing02:

Simply....WOW!

Absolutely awesome, congrats. It looks like an amazing, fun machine. I was just wondering a few weeks ago what you were up to and now I see you've been enjoying life quite well. Hope you have many more happy miles on the bike!

:laugh: :tour: :fing02:

CAN I GET A WOOT!?!

Really freakin Awesome Selenna!! You're a very lucky girl!

YES!!!!! :tour: :tour: :tour:

Way too cool!!   Did you stay in the presidential suite at the Dargo Hotel ?


Rollin

Another amazing chapter, Ride on...

Glad to hear you're riding again.... That's the way a 3-wheeler should be, don't know why they made the Spyder the way they did........... what cc is your bike I can't make out the numbers on the side?
Again, a great come back.

Astounding progress! Thanks for the update. Almost 6 years in the making........Proud of you as well as your support group.

Holy cow!, Geeze Riotgirl! :ohmy: , I was just thinking about you this week and wondering what's new with you!
Your exciting new riding vibes must have reached all the way here in SF.to me or something, But I'm totally excited for you too after seeing this new thread about your new ride!
Fantastic! It must be great to lean a bike into a turn again and it looks like you lean that bike harder than many riders here! :fing02: :fing02: :fing02:
Time for a long summer riding vacation down under for you! :tour:
Please keep us posted on your coming new adventures.

Beck
95 VFR

Wow!!!  Truly an inspiration.  I am 6'3" 230lbs of Navy sailor but ma'am,  you are 10X stronger than I.  Congrats on achieving all you have.  Your new wheels look badass too.

This thread gives me goosebumbs.

What an incredible piece of machinery, I love the actions shot of you leaning it into the corner, WOW!
Congratulations on getting back in the saddle.

WHATA   MACHINE    !!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your post :fing02:   After following your story and all your hard work this is great to see!   Keep enjoying the lean :happy:

WOW....You are inspirational.  Your experience, when shared,  inspires others to look for what sparks them deep inside and work even more diligently to overcome whatever obstacles they may be facing.

You are an example of the victory of human spirit over adversity and all of those you named who have helped you along the way are most certainly just as stoked as you to see you back outside and leaning into the turns just as you lean into life.

Awesome and very cool!!!

Welcome back at it and thanks for keeping us updated. :tour:

BR

Inspiring story.  I remember reading about you shortly after I joined VFRD.  Glad to hear you are back in the saddle!

Very awesome!  I love the new bike too!

[image: View Post]Monk, on 28 September 2012 - 11:37 PM, said:

Glad to hear you're riding again.... That's the way a 3-wheeler should be, don't know why they made the Spyder the way they did........... what cc is your bike I can't make out the numbers on the side?
Again, a great come back.

Pretty sure thats the 690, Monk.


Thats so awesome to see, very inspiring. And if you don't mind me asking, didn't see in the post.. Very curious as to how you have the shifter setup?

Great to hear from you kiddo. You've made my year.

wow.  just wow.

I got soggy eyes just reading about your successes.  Nothing but smiles from here!  Adam's dedication to you is something most of us can strive to be to our own partners.  GOD bless him.

I have spent the last few hours just reading about your journey and there are just no words to say what I feel. Lenna, you are truly an inspiration to everyone. Congrats.

[image: View Post]NakedViffer, on 29 September 2012 - 10:11 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Monk, on 28 September 2012 - 11:37 PM, said:

Glad to hear you're riding again.... That's the way a 3-wheeler should be, don't know why they made the Spyder the way they did........... what cc is your bike I can't make out the numbers on the side?
Again, a great come back.

Pretty sure thats the 690, Monk.


Thats so awesome to see, very inspiring. And if you don't mind me asking, didn't see in the post.. Very curious as to how you have the shifter setup?
Thx for the numbers........Monk

Wow!!!!!! Congratulations on riding again!' And what a nice machine you got!! I remember some years ago seeing it on tv thinking they were cool and you're proving it!!
C

A RiotGrrl post, I had to look. No need for me to read the back story, I remember.
Good to see you on a bike or trike as it may be.
It looks pretty damn cool. Thanks for the update. :fing02:

An observation:  it's personal, so ignore it if you like, but is Stewy is a significant person!  He is awesome.

I am with you from before the bad thing, and this is so wonderful to see joy return! Wishing you and Stewy much happiness now and always.

Ohhh, you guys are great and I am humbled :-)

Yep NakedViffer got it right - it's a 690SMR.
I have the kliktronic gear shifter fitted to it so that I can change gear using up and down shift buttons, and I only need the clutch for first gear. It works very well :-)

It's a work in progress really and it is still being tweaked and refined. It's a fun process :-D

@ Alaskan: Stewy is very significant indeed! He is my "significant other"   :wub:

Wow this is great - hopefully I'll bump into you up in the hills this summer.  I'm sure you'll stand out!!

Now,  take that bike as "cabin luggage"  and come over to ride the Alps, Dolomites and a few dikes in the Netherlands....   :laugh:





GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO   girrrrrrll!!!!   :tour:

Very cool to see you back out leaning on some corners.  It's great to hear that you were able to find a solution that you were happy with.  You are a real inspiration!

I want to be YOU when I grow up! You're awesome! Congratulations on getting back in the saddle!!!!

VERY happy to hear you are doing well, and the new setup looks WAY more like your speed than the Spyder did!  You inspire!

Glad to hear you are doing so well and that your spirit for riding has been resurrected.

Just the same as everyone else here......WOW!  Your journey has been inspirational to say the least.   :fing02:

Fantastic post!  I am so happy to hear this!

-Ron

Occasionally I wonder how you are doing. It's been long enough that I was wondering if you had a setback or you found new interests. I'm very pleased to see how you are doing. Best wishes to you and your family.

Awesome, just awesome, wishing you both many happy miles!!

Well, I hope this is an interesting perspective on your progress.

I remember reading about your mishap, which was linked from another forum, before I ever acquired a VFR.  As time went on, it mostly lapsed from memory (as many things do for me) until I re-discovered either the post or a reference to it some time after getting my VFR.  It then mostly lapsed from memory again until today when I started reading this post.  I have to say I was a little shocked that you managed to find a way back into motorbiking as I assumed you probably wouldn't, but I am even more pleased to see that you have made it happen.

This is a journey that I feel in some small way to have been on with you even though you don't know me from Adam.  I'm sure that there are many others here who read more of your posts prior to your accident that knew you a lot better, and there are many that know you personally that obviously know you that much better still.

The point I guess I'm trying to make is that although you don't know me at all, I've been rooting for you for a long time, hoping you'd find a way to make it happen, as I'm sure many many others have been.

Thanks for sticking to it.

Enjoy the ride.

Sorry to hear about the accident, Great to see your back on the road keep the posts and pic coming.

Personally I'm not surprised to see you back out there because that's what a RiotGrrl does :) I'd expect nothing less from you and Adam, because you guys are the ones that show the rest of us just how it should be done.

Thanks for making my day/week/year :)

Beautiful to see, on a lot of levels. From the beginning we all knew you were a winner and would be back!

First I would like to say, WOW! and congratulations on getting back in the game. Your story is very inspirational and the amount of courage you have is enormous and I'm sure that having the support from your friends and family that you had only helped to contributed to your accomplishment.

Cheers!

What an inspirational, exciting and uplifting series of posts, Lenna! I'm so glad to hear the way you and your friends have sorted things out to make you mobile again. (I'm also feeling rather contrite coz I showed this to my SpousalUnit and she told me off for my crap attitude.... Oops... :unsure: )
Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to more stories and pix of further adventures! :fing02:

At first glance I thought, "Oh, she got herself a Piaggio MP3, how nice."

Then, I noticed it was a fire breathing-rip snorting KTM.

Holy crap, that thing must move out like a scalded cat!


Good for you, Grrl!


Anyone else curious about the KTM trike can look here:  http://www.brudelitech.com/

Wow, very inspiring story!  Congrats on the new ride, that really looks like a lot of fun! :smile:

Chuck

Good on you for getting back on the horse - and what a cool horse it is. It looks like a Piaggo MP3 on steroids! Who makes that kit? Congrats and Cheers!

All going well, we have big plans for next year, just cause you all love cliff hangers i will let Lenna tell ya ;-)

The unit is brudeli yes, but is still only suitable for able body ppl, the system that allows Lenna to ride is my own design custom built to suit her needs

Oooh is that a prompt? LOL

Fine :tongue:

We are planning to ship the bikes over to the USA in June 2013 to spend 10 weeks zig-zagging across the country
I was hoping we could tie it in with the Texas Mac and catch up with as many of you lot as possible, but that's in May, right?
We will journey from west to east so considering that the TMac is on the east side there is just no way we can make it happen, sooo... We will try to catch up with as many people as we can along the way instead. Perhaps some of you could spend a a little time riding with us through your part of the world, or show us where to find the fun roads, eh?

I guess I need to start a new thread for this and put up a map showing the (very rough) proposed route.
Hopefully we haven't bitten off more than we can chew!

[image: View Post]kaldek, on 01 October 2012 - 02:00 AM, said:

Wow this is great - hopefully I'll bump into you up in the hills this summer.  I'm sure you'll stand out!!

Me too - I've been transferred with my work to Melbourne in Dec, so I'll def keep my eye out for you on the Vic roads over X-mas. You too Mr Kaldek !!

Btw -  I googled the Dargo Pub - that's my kind of overnight stop - nice.

[image: View Post]Riot Grrrl, on 05 October 2012 - 03:59 AM, said:

Hopefully we haven't bitten off more than we can chew!

Now that sounds like the definition of impossible for you, Lenna and Stewy.

What a truly inspiring story - you get choked up ???

Reading your latest is as good as watching the Paralympics, with a little extra for us motorcyclists.  You have captured the essence of riding extremely well.  Sky's the limit who knows where you will finish up.  Congratulations and a seriously good looking outfit as well :smile:

[image: View Post]Riot Grrrl, on 05 October 2012 - 03:59 AM, said:

Oooh is that a prompt? LOL

Fine :tongue:

We are planning to ship the bikes over to the USA in June 2013 to spend 10 weeks zig-zagging across the country
I was hoping we could tie it in with the Texas Mac and catch up with as many of you lot as possible, but that's in May, right?
We will journey from west to east so considering that the TMac is on the east side there is just no way we can make it happen, sooo... We will try to catch up with as many people as we can along the way instead. Perhaps some of you could spend a a little time riding with us through your part of the world, or show us where to find the fun roads, eh?

I guess I need to start a new thread for this and put up a map showing the (very rough) proposed route.
Hopefully we haven't bitten off more than we can chew!

Looking forward to seeing the proposed map. Me and the wife would love to meet you and Stewy and ride with you a bit if you pass through Oklahoma.

Love that you shared your story. Motorcycling is one of the best brotherhoods, clubs families in my opinion to belong to!  I will always stop to help my brothers and sisters.  And it always hurts when one of us is lost or injured, but we all understand that it happens and sharing just makes us stronger.  Thank you so much!!!

The proposed route for our trip in June 2013 is up now.

Here's the thread:

http://www.vfrdiscus...iders-9-wheels/

This is inspirational! Thank you for sharing.

Rior Grrrl is The Queen of Awesomeness!!!!  

Hardly ever visit VFRD anymore, but boy was I pleased to see this today on a rare visit.

So awesome to see you riding!! Once in awhile I will have an image riotgrrl pop into my head randomly and think to myself "I wonder how she is getting on"?

Cheers!