Gemma’s story
2011 was such a rewarding year for County Cycles in more ways than one. One of the most prominent was the ‘Come and Try it day’ held at Llanelli where we held a free day’s trail of all sorts of bikes, from three wheelers, recumbent, tandems and hand built bikes.
The day came about after a meeting with Wyn Jenkins, an above the knee amputee who is an inspirational ‘character’ – and I say that as, anyone who has ever met Wyn will surely agree – imagine a person who is jolly, humerous, kind, supportive and multiply that by 100 – that equals Wyn (and the biggest wind up merchant I have ever met, in a nice way of course).
Wyn then introduced us to Gemma Trotter – an above the knee amputee who was interested in buying a new bike and having a ‘Bike Fit’. Gemma has kindly agreed that we can add her to our blog and she has put pen to paper with a brief outline of herself:-
”Hi, I’m Gemma Trotter, I’m 29 years old, married to Robbie and have a young son Archie. I am an above knee amputee with Osseo-integration (where I bolt my leg on to an external pin in my baby leg). This was after a car accident when I was only 14. I elected to have my leg amputated after trying to save my leg for 2 years. The past nine years I have been heavily into the gym, with spinning being my main passion. I decided to try cycling outdoors in 2011, I completed the London to Paris bike ride in October and are now having a bike built for me at County Cycles where I can get the most power were out of the legs I have. They have invested lots of time in me-the bike fit is critical for comfort. The buzz you get from cycling and spinning is like no other and I hope to get better throughout all the events I plan to do in 2012. My plan is to be teaching spinning and personal training by March 2012. My future events include Isle of Wight Randonee, The Merlin ride, possibly North to South Ireland, Nightrider of London 100km plus as many Sportives as I can fit in!! ”
And so it began – Gemma made the long trip from Gatwick to Crosshands, South Wales for her Bike fit before Christmas. Gemma’s goals for her cycling were quite clear in that she wanted be a competitive cyclist and she made our job easy – positive and constructive feedback with an attitude to match. Wyn’s input as an amputee cyclist was invaluable during the bike fit session- thank you Wyn. Gemma chose a Condor Squadra to fit in with her racing aspirations – carbon frame with ultegra group set, black with Mavic Ksyrium wheels and Gore cables. It doesn’t end there as this bike has a twist – personalised with her name on one side of the top tube and her son and husbands’ on the other.
We were all excited to see the personalised Squadra – immaculately done by Chris Grove of PRA Promotions (thanks from us all Chris) and Gemma arrived to collect her purchase and finalise the fit on Friday 6th January 2012 – getting it right for Gemma was so important for us all – mechanics, bike fitter, and Condor and waiting for her reaction was like waiting for your exam results! We’re please to say that Gemma was delighted with the look of the bike and even more delighted when she found how responsive it rode!
After taking her new Condor out for a test run on the Saturday and a debrief on the day, we look forward to Gemma’s return and her feedback both on the fit and the bike – it was a pleasure to work with her and we wish her the very best of luck for her forthcoming events – keep a look out for updates on Gemma’s achievements on our blog.
Thanks to Wyn Jenkins, Josh from Condor Cycles, Andy Clarke from Madison, Chris Grove (PRA Promotions) and our County Cycles Team who all made this possible.
Random Bikes
