We need your help to secure the future of the NABD!

After 35 years of changing lives, and being the world leader in the feild of motorcycling for people with disabilities, we now face the huge chalenge of raising £180,000 over-and-above our normal running costs by 29 February 2028 to save the industrial premises that have underpinned our services for disabled riders for the past 20-years.

The loss of this building would be catastrophic for the NABD!

A Critical Financial Challenge

To survive in any recognisable form, the NABD must raise £180,000 over and above its normal running costs by 29 February 2028.

This is not an arbitrary target. It is the unavoidable cost of securing the future of the organisation.

For two decades, the NABD has operated from a 1,150 sq./ft industrial unit in Trafford Park, Manchester. This unpretentious facility serves as our operational base and administrative hub, incorporating our:

• Adaptation workshop
• Maintenance facility
• Meeting room
• Training centre
• Assessment facility
• Advice & advocacy service

It is also our storage facility for:

• Ten specially adapted Learner/Loaner motorcycles
• Two specially adapted trikes
• Fundraising Event/Rally infrastructure equipment
• The National Information/Advice Stand
• Publicity materials
• Display apparatus
• File archives
• Donated vehicles (prior to being raffled or auctioned)
• Other donated items
• Motorcycle trailers and trike‑towing equipment

The unit also provides a parking space in the secure gated car park for the NABD van and serves as the operational heart of everything we do.

For 20 years, our landlord has generously kept the rent unchanged, saving the charity a significant amount of money and allowing us to keep core costs down and our primary services affordable and accessible.

However, he must now sell the unit, and market research shows that any new owner will inevitably raise the rent to current market levels, which are approximately double what we currently pay. Such an increase is far beyond what the NABD’s average annual income could sustain.

Recognising the gravity of the situation, the landlord has magnanimously agreed to postpone the sale and accept a modest, temporary rent increase, for a strictly limited two‑year period. This grace period gives us one chance, and one chance only, to raise the funds required to purchase the unit.

What makes the NABD worth saving?

For 35 years, the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD) has been transforming people’s lives through practical support, technical innovation, and an unwavering belief that when it comes to motorcycling, a disability need not be a handicap.

Every week, someone, somewhere, believes their riding days are over, until they come to the NABD for advice and assistance.

Recent prime examples of direct NABD help include:

• Providing funding to adapt a trike to suit the needs of a young lady in Scotland who had sustained a spinal cord injury resulting in complete paraplegia.
• Providing an adapted 125cc motorcycle to a man in the Midlands, born without a left hand, enabling him to complete his CBT, road training, and ultimately gain a full motorcycle licence.
• Successfully interceding with the DVLA on behalf of a rider in South Wales whose motorcycle entitlement had been incorrectly revoked after he suffered paralysis in his right arm.
• Supporting a family in Kent by contributing to the cost of fitting a sidecar, allowing their bike‑mad young son, who has complex disabilities, to join them on their annual trip to the Isle of Man TT.
• Gifting a push-button gear changer kit, a dual lever kit and a comprehensive package of adaptation guidance to a disabled rider in West Bengal who is preparing for a Himalayan motorcycle expedition to raise awareness and establish a support group for disabled riders in India.  (This is outside of the normal bailywick of the NABD but we have previously helped similar groups set-up in six other countries in a similar way).

Since its founding in April 1991, the NABD has directly empowered more than 12,000 disabled people across the UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Isles to experience the freedom of independent motorcycling.

Our pioneering work in adaptations, licensing, insurance, and legislative advocacy, has gone on to benefit countless thousands more across Europe and around the world.

The NABD is run entirely by unpaid volunteers who work tirelessly to keep core costs low so that 100% of all donations directly fund our services. We employ just one paid staff member, our Office Manager, whose salary is funded from membership subscriptions.

Despite this extraordinary legacy, and despite being the global leader in motorcycling for people with disabilities, the NABD now faces the most serious existential challenge in its history.

What Is at Stake?

If we cannot raise the £180,000 needed to buy the premises, the consequences will be devastating for the NABD.

Downsizing to a unit we could afford at current rental rates would restrict us to a building of less than 500 sq/ft. This would make several of our core services impossible to continue, including:

• the adapted Learner/Loaner motorcycle scheme
• motorcycle and trike rider assessments
• the development of new adaptations
• the National Information/Advice Stand used at events across the UK
• our ability to host essential meetings and training sessions

The loss of these services would strike at the very heart of the NABD’s mission. The only other alternative, closing the charity down entirely, is almost unthinkable after 35 years of dedicated service, innovation, overcoming so many challenges, and having so much support from the motorcycling community.

A Perfect Storm of Challenges

This crisis comes at a time when the vast majority of UK charities are already struggling. Since 2020, donations to charities have steadily declined, influenced partly by a post‑pandemic societal disconnect and partly by the relentless march toward becoming a cashless society. Meanwhile, rising living costs place further strain on potential donors!

Throughout its history, the NABD has survived because of its resilience, its fundraising events, its membership subscriptions, sound financial management and, above all, the generosity and unity of the motorcycling community. We can but hope that the societal disengagement affecting so many people is less prevalent among bikers, who have always looked after their own.

Our Future Depends on the Motorcycle Community

The facts are stark:

• To secure the future of the NABD, we must raise £180,000 by 29 February 2028.
• There is no safety net. No alternative funding source. No second chance.

In the absence of a wealthy philanthropic benefactor, or a substantial new sponsor who could perhaps profit from the tax benefits* of making a substantial donation, we will once again be relying on the strength and unity of the biking community, the same community that helped us to build this charity, sustained it, and helped it to become the world leader in the field of motorcycling for people with disabilities, changing thousands of bikers lives for the better.

If we succeed in purchasing the unit, the NABD’s future will be secure. Without the burden of rent, our core costs will fall significantly, allowing a greater proportion of our annual income to fund the services that change so many lives for the better.

If we fail, this world leading British institution could become nothing more than a footnote in the chronicle of a nation that has already allowed too many of its cultural achievements to pass into history.

If the NABD is to survive, we must come together now. If the NABD matters to you, please act today!

How You Can Help

To make a donation to the NABD Premises Appeal please click here: NABD Premises Appeal

If you are a UK Taxpayer, please check the Gift Aid box when making your donation. This will enable the NABD to claim an additional 25% on top of your donation from the HMRC.

For information on how your donation can also reduce your own tax liability, visit: Tax Benefits for Members & Donors

If your club would like to organise a fundraising event for the NABD, be it a disco in a pub, a full-blown rally, a sponsored event, a raffle or fundraising run, please contact: sponsorship@thenabd.org.uk so we can provide NABD information, the NABD fundraising logo, and our charity number for your publicity.

If you are planning a sponsored event and wish the proceeds to support the NABD Premises Appeal, please contact; sponsorship@thenabd.org.uk so we can sanction and support your efforts.

We would also welcome confidential discussions with major donors or corporate partners wishing to play a transformational role.  If your company would like to discuss sponsorship opportunities and/or legacy recognition, please email: office@thenabd.org.uk

All donations to this appeal will be ring‑fenced exclusively for the purchase of the industrial unit.

If this appeal falls significantly short of the required amount, the funds will be used to facilitate a move to a smaller unit, with any remainder supporting running costs ans services. In the event of the NABD being forced to shut up shop, any remaining funds will be donated to other motorcycling and/or disabilities charities, in accordance with the NABD Constitution registered with the Charity Commission.

Please support this appeal in whatever way you can.  Every donation, large or small, will go toward securing the future of the NABD.

For further information about the NABD and the services it provides, go to: https://nabd.org.uk/

Rick Hulse
Chairman, National Association for Bikers with a Disability
The NABD is a Registered Charity