Trikes have the unique ability of empowering and enabling people to ride who otherwise couldn’t due to age, injury, handicap, or plenty of other reasons. Enter Martin Conquest, a UK-based moco who wanted to give the gift of riding to those bound to wheelchairs, creating the world’s first – as the creators call it – “Wheelchair Motorcycle” that can be rolled up onto and piloted in a wheelchair using controls from the waist up only. As the Greater Manchester-based tri-co puts it: “The Conquest is the culmination of a three-year dream to provide mobility to disabled former motorcyclists and disabled aspiring motorcyclists.”
The founder and designer of the Martin Conquest 1200 Wheelchair Motorbike is Alan Martin. Martin’s son had become disabled and could no longer ride. Not wanting his son to be robbed of one of the greatest joys life has to offer, the dedicated and crafty father penned a wheelchair-accessible front-engine trike design that would receive dozens of revisions thanks to continued development. While the idea of someone already in a wheelchair piloting a motorbike (of sorts) that’s capable of triple-digit speeds was concerning to some, Martin was met by warm and enthusiastic responses each time he reached out for assistance or advice on the project, helping Martin’s concept come to fruition and see production.
The wide trike has a myriad of features that make it increasingly wheelchair-friendly such as a large tailgate that automatically lowers 90 degrees to serve as a ramp for the pilot to use to enter the scoot. The entire machine is operated via hand-controls, meaning those disabled or paralyzed from the waist down can still pilot the Conquest. It also boasts a wildly necessary reverse-gear. In addition to its sleek looks, the wheelchair motorcycle also sports some trick features like heated grips and a suicide clutch. All around it’s a genuinely luxurious vehicle inside and out.
At the heart of the trike is a BMW R1150R air and oil-cooled 1170cc DOHC boxer twin, powering dual rear wheels with a rear differential. The BMW engine is married to a six-speed transmission that is operated via a semi-automatic thumb-operated gear-change system and features what Martin Quest calls pushbutton “Kicktronic” shift. Wrapped around the powerplant is an aluminum frame dampened by a telescopic fork and dual gas-shock wishbone rear suspension and slowed by front (330mm) and rear brake (254mm) vented, hydraulic disc brakes, all sitting on a trio of cast alloy wheels. The Conquest 1200 supposedly gets 45mpg with its hefty wet weight of 1190 lbs.
A huge part of what makes this machine special is that it’s not just an excuse that riders in wheelchairs have to settle for, the engineers went out of their way to make sure the trike would boast exhilarating performance, offering the traditional joy-inducing experience legions of riders have enjoyed for generations. According to Conquest, the BMW-powered trike – which has the full name of “Mobility Conquest Wheelchair-Accessible Motorcycle” – has a 0-60mph time of 7.6 seconds and a top speed that’s reportedly a 105 mph.
Work first began on the Conquest in 2003 with an early steel-framed concept being made which was far too heavy. The use of aluminum and lightweight fiberglass bodywork with stressed areas being reinforced to keep weight down. The chassis redesign and bodywork design were then kicked into high-gear with Martin Conquest outsourcing some of these next tasks to specialists. The engine and chassis (and essential data-points), as well as the trike’s frame, were all digitized before being passed on to a design engineering firm in Coventry who converted and merged the data into CATIA. (CATIA is the automotive industry standard CAD, Computer Aided Design, software program.)
After designs were settled upon and R&D had wrapped up, production began in Hyde before it would be unveiled at the annual National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association Conference, hitting the UK-market before technical aspects of the vehicle were design-engineered around very specific guidelines and regulations of the National Highways Transport Safety Administration in order to get Federal Approval to sell the Conquest in the United States. The Conquest 1200 obviously has a fairly niche market, but it gives people a chance to enjoy life on a scoot. Production and assembly would eventually be outsourced to Akron, Ohio-based Mobility Works who churns out units for the British moco.
To ensure Martin Conquest was building a proper product for the buyer, it enlisted the help of a handful of organizations to develop the trike such as The National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD) and the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA). A press release from the unique British moco stated: “The vehicle is user-friendly yet provides the ‘freedom to be wild’ that is missing from many people’s lives. After gaining some insight into what it is to be disabled I wanted to build a beautiful machine that would completely change some disabled people’s lives. I believe this is what I have done with The Conquest.”
This particular example doesn’t list the mileage but is said to be “like new”. This particular Martin Trike was featured on Full Throttle’s Saloon TV series where it was presented to Corporal Todd Love, a fairly famous Recon Marine who his arm and both legs in an IED attack while on tour in Afghanistan.
You can find this 2012 Martin Conquest Handicap Trike for sale here on Craigslist in Hiram, Georgia with a price of $30,000.