This custom bike is helping a mountain bike legend ride again after his life-changing accident
WHO IS MARTYN ASHTON?
In the world of trials riding Martyn Ashton has done it all. He’s won world titles, set a sidehop record, started his own bike company and run a demo tour for 11 years. He’s also featured in numerous video segments, from Chainspotting to the Road Bike Party series. As well as being one of the nicest guys you could meet, he’s also a well hard bastard, breaking his back not once but twice during his career. Even without the use of his legs, he can’t be kept down.
WHY IS THIS A SUPERBIKE?
-It’s the first of its kind – a motorised mountain bike for riders with limited mobility or spinal injuries
-Almost everything is custom – the frame, motor, seat and more
-It’s the result of many hours’ hard work by Martyn, Mojo’s Chris Porter and other friends
This bike is like no other, but then it’s been designed for a unique rider. Martyn Ashton was one of the world’s biggest trials stars for nearly two decades. Then, in 2013, he dislocated two vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord during a demo at the Silverstone Circuit. Left with no feeling from the waist down, it seemed unlikely he’d ever ride a bike again. But someone as passionate and determined as Martyn would never let the ‘small matter’ of paralysis get in the way of him riding. Instead, he began working with Mojo Suspension’s Chris Porter to create and modify a custom rig that would get him back on the trails.
Shapeshifter
If you’re a regular reader you’ll be aware of the Mojo/Nicolai GeoMetron and its radically long and slack geometry. Martyn’s bike uses a tweaked version of this frame – and we’re not just talking about the obvious additions of a bucket seat and electric motor. At the start of the project, high and short geometry was chosen to suit a trials style of riding, but during the design process the focus changed to more aggressive riding. With this shift, the frame evolved to become much slacker, in order to lower Martyn’s centre of gravity.
Martyn sits in an adaptive ski seat with a hinged backrest. This stabilises his lower back while giving a small amount of forward and backward movement. The seat is sized to fit him and has waist and thigh straps to minimise movement and maximise control. It fixes to the bike via a normal seatpost, so angle adjustments are straightforward. Martyn’s feet are simply taped to the pedals – it’s a bodged solution but it works. He’s been thinking about trying clipless pedals but it’s an alien concept to someone who’s ridden flats all their life.
Powering the bike is an electric motor made by EGO, a company who produce e-bike conversion kits. Conventional ‘pedelec’ motors add power assistance to the cranks, but because Martyn can’t pedal it had to be modified to drive the rear wheel independently. If you look closely you’ll see that the cranks are parallel to each other and fixed to the frame, giving him a solid footrest.
With 2,500w of power on tap, some grippy rubber is needed to transfer all that torque to the dirt. Chris and Martyn experimented with plus-size tyres but found that regular treads with a DH carcass and soft compound worked best. With about 10kg of extra hardware onboard, the bike certainly isn’t light. Normally the battery pack for the EGO motor would go in the rider’s backpack, but Martyn found the bike difficult to manoeuvre with the extra weight on his back so it’s located beneath the seat instead.
Slack and long
The bike is finished with Fox suspension parts. The 40 Float is a downhill fork but it’s used here to slacken and lengthen the bike rather than soak up big hits. It delivers 160 to 170mm (6.3-6.7in) of travel, paired with 155mm (6.1in) from the Fox DHX2 coil shock at the rear. The suspension tune is unusual too. Because Martyn can’t absorb any rebound energy with his legs, the shock is set up much harder and slower than normal. This applies to the fork as well, because his high centre of gravity shifts forwards under braking. This, coupled with the powerful Hope brakes, means he can pull some pretty mean stoppies!
The bike’s working well for Martyn, as our Features Ed Alex can confirm. He spent a day at BikePark Wales trying to chase Martyn down and couldn’t believe how fast and controlled he was (MBUK 328). So far there are only two of these custom GeoMetrons in existence – Martyn’s and one made for another paraplegic rider, Steve Aitchinson. Now Martyn and Chris have gone through the process of developing this bike, they’ve paved the way for more riders in similar situations to get back on two wheels.
EGO BOOST
The bike features a modified first-of-itskind motor from Austrian company EGO. It’s bolted beneath the down tube and the battery pack is mounted beneath the seat, rather than on Martyn’s back, to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible.
BLING KIT
As long-term sponsors of Martyn, British CNC machinists Hope were keen to help out by supplying the finishing kit for the build. It’s all lightweight and reliable stuff – essential for slowing the weight of a 10kg motor.
WIDE OPEN
Martyn uses a full-length motocross style throttle grip to give him precise control of the motor. Split second power input is essential for him to boost jumps and stop the front wheel diving.
BUCKLE UP
A sit-ski seat mounted on a standard seatpost keeps Martyn in place and fully in control while charging down the hills. As one of his main points of contact, it was important that it fitted him perfectly.
MOJO BABY
With South Wales suspension experts Mojo playing a big role in the development of this bike, considerable thought has been put into the damping. Unlike an able-bodied rider, Martyn is seated all the time so he needs a custom tune, which has been perfected through extensive testing.
Price: 9225$ (standard Mojo/Nicolai GeoMetron with Pro Set-Up package)