DOT

    This fine machine came courtesy of eBay, and the adaptations officer for NABD, one "Billy Bigbeard".  November 2003 saw me driving up to Leek and bringing this machine back home.  It lived outside Nigel Fletcher's place until I made room for it back home.   Why is it called DOT ?   If I told you the last three letters of the registration number were DOT would it give you a clue ?

    The one thing that this 2 litre, automatic trike is good for and that's towing - or at least it is now.  Back in 2004, I was coming back from the Gurt Gallybagger rally, travelling along the A303, just past Stonehenge.  I was following Pete Cain on his VW trike.  Now we didn't know at the time that Pete's trike had a blockage in the fuel filter - the moment he opened the throttle the trike would slow down and almost die.  This slow running up the hills caused the automatic transmission fluid in my trike to escape from the gearbox.  Oh what fun.  The very next job when I got home was to fit a massive oil cooler.  It seems to have done the trick.

        This was one of the last camping weekends before my accident.  Up by the Stiperstones.  All being well, DOT will be the first vehicle that I will be able to use once my leg starts to recover.  Being an automatic, I don't need the left foot seeing as there is no clutch pedal.  The seat may have to be raised in order for me to fit on board . . .  that is an ongoing project as of March 2010.  Well - on March 27th the seat was indeed raised by four inches, and moved back by about three inches.  This means I can now ride DOT.  OK, so I can only tolerate being sat on it for ten minutes or so, but it's a start.

    Here you can see the stylish seat modification - a couple of lumps of wood, a bit of all-thread, and the job's a good 'un

Now I bet the MOT tester ain't going to look to favourably on a wooden seat base, so when MOT time came round I decided that

as well as three new tyres, a new seat mounting would be in order.  The seat mounting bit was easy, but when it came to changing the front

tyre things went a tad wrong.  The wheel spindle was seized solid.  Much time, trouble and expense later and all was well.