Thieves target training school run by one-armed racer, taking bikes away from disabled learners

A motorcycle training school in Cheltenham, run by one-armed road racer Chris Ganley, has been broken into by thieves – halting plans to convert a number of new machines to cater for disabled riders.

The incident took place on Sunday, June 22 while Ganley was competing at the Cock o’ the North race meeting at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough, on his own converted competition bike.

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“As soon as I came in from my race, I looked at my phone and there were about 15 missed calls from my landlady and I kind of knew what it would be for,” owner of CC Motorcycle Training, Ganley told MCN.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he continued. “All I could think about was collapsing everything [and heading back]. It was the last race of the weekend, so it all needed to be packed up anyway.”

Having used power tools to gain access to the premises, the criminals took four Yamaha MT-07s, plus two brand-new MT-125s with fewer than 50 miles on the clock.

They also gained access to the safe – taking the keys to all of the bikes at the premises, plus money, half a roll of CBT certificates, and the stamps used to authenticate them.

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MCN spoke with Gloucestershire Police who confirmed they were investigating the break-in.

“At the moment I’m not leaving anything valuable anywhere near it,” Ganley explained. “We are in the process of building new locking systems which aren’t accessible.”

The incident has forced Ganley to bring two other new MT-125s into service to continue to run CBT courses – bikes he had previously earmarked for conversions to help disabled riders get into motorcycling.

“One was going to be for left-hand only use,” he explained – having previously already converted a Yamaha YBR125 to house all of its controls on the right-side handlebar.”

The other bike was set to have its gear and brake functions converted to thumb control.

Following the incident, a Just Giving page was created by a fellow racer and friend with the aim of raising £2000 to help lessen the impact on the business.

This target has now been exceeded with the total currently sat at £3505 and donations continuing to pour in. You can find the donation page here.