Childhood Bikes & An Amputee’s Inspiring Story

Join us on an unforgettable adventure ride through the scenic off-road trails of County Durham. Glenn is on his Santa Cruz E-bike and I am on my regular Cube MTB. In this episode, Glenn and I explore beautiful, remote bridleways and forest paths we’ve never ridden before — some challenging, all peaceful, and full of natural beauty.

🏞️ We ride through the stunning Chapman’s Well Nature Reserve and along the serene Lanchester Valley Railway Path, uncovering forgotten corners of the northeast UK. Along the way, we dive into the local mining history, discovering fascinating stories behind the old collieries, the South Moor Hospital, and the Rescue Station House — relics of a bygone industrial era.

🚴‍♂️ But this ride isn’t just about trails and scenery. Glenn shares his incredible story of resilience — after losing his leg to a tumour in his knee, he’s now back on the bike using a Bartlett Tendon prosthetic G3 Infinity knee. He opens up about the mental and physical journey of recovery, and how cycling became his path back to freedom. I also share how we met, and how Glenn’s story continues to inspire me every time we ride.

🧭 Yes, I got lost (again!) and had to retrace my steps to find the right bridleway — because what’s an adventure without a few wrong turns?

🧭 Ride Highlights:

Off-road cycling in Stanley, County Durham
Chapman’s Well Nature Reserve
Lanchester Valley Railway Trail
History of South Moor’s mining heritage
Getting lost on new trails
Inspiring story of an amputee cyclist’s return to MTB
Childhood bike memories

Glenn’s book is available here:

#bikelife #ebike #cyclingadventure #getoutside #prostheticleg

Music credited below:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/smack-that
License code: 03I4XW2C1D63RHKP

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/yeti-music/homeward
License code: GFMDSU1NFCH0WQII

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/limitless
License code: C62XYGZWTHNOH3KW

[Music] Hey, hey. Back again out on me bike. This time I’m with me mate Glenn. Uh I think I introduced you to him um on a few videos prior. So today he’s going to talk about uh some of the local area. We’re just going on a local ride around all the trails and that. And Glenn’s lived here for a long time and he knows every trail known to man. And he’s got some fantastic nostalgic childhood memories that he likes talking about. Um, and I don’t know if you noticed on the last video, he’s actually he rides with one leg, a prosthetic limb. What’s it called, Glenn? The blet tend. The bartlet tendon. So, I’ll get him to talk about all that and his his journey over over time of how how he lost his leg and uh and how he found his motivation to to get out and ride his bikes and stuff like that. And I’ll tell you the story how we met. So, see you in a minute. So, we’re heading up there the golf course now. This is actually classed as a byway, which means I think you can take motor vehicles up and down. Not that I’ve seen any. I mean, why would you want to drive your car up here? I don’t think it would fit. Motorbike, I suppose. [Applause] You all right? Yeah. Is the horse all right? Yeah. I’ll let you pass. Thank you. You all right? [Applause] So, we’ve just come up the Sandy Lawn, which is like a it’s like an off-road trail coming up to Wagtail Lane where I believe if Lee turns around and has a look at these windmills here, I call them windmills, they’re not the wind turbines. I think these were six of the biggest in Europe at the time. So at the bottom of um the Sandy Lauren Lawn, sorry, there’s a a boat place called Rever Boat. It’s been there for as long as I can remember. And there’s a house next to it called Rescue Station House. So I’m not quite sure of the history, but obviously it must have been something to do with rescuing. It’s quite weird because we’re quite inland from the coast. So, Rivera Boats to be in this far in land and making I think they used to make like fiberglass boats but uh we’ve just come up past um Southmore Golf Club which is a really well-kept golf club. I’ve never played on it but uh it looks kind of hard to play on cuz it’s on a hill. So, we’ve climbed right up and this is what we call Wagtail Lane. So, all these is like our local loops. Um lovely up here but this road’s quite busy so you’ve got to watch when you’re cycling. So, I’m thinking about taking Lee down. I don’t know he’s ever been down this way. It’s on the road, which we don’t really ride roads, but we’re going to go down the road into Homeside. And then from there, we’ll figure out where we’re going to go. We’re showing Chapman’s Well Nature Reserve. That’s what I call it. I think that’s the official official term. I don’t know what the the nickname is. Must have chucked it down last night. All these puddles. See that pond up there? Is that a natural pond? Is it? No, it’s mad here. All right. Man made that man. Somebody smashed this fence down. Yeah. That’s Why do you think Why do they think that? I don’t know. There’s enough fell down in the wind or something. Why? Looks like it’s That’s new wood there. I mean, it’s kind of sturdy that way. So, where I used to live at Mitchell Street, there used to be some really big tall slag heaps off the old mines off the off the pit heaps and stuff we used to call them. They were massive and they used to slide down them on in tin baths and bits of lino and this kind of lakes just remind us we used to have a pond at the end of the street and uh used to be up playing with me wellies on collecting nes and frogs. Um and you see a lot of baby frogs around here when it’s time when you know when they come out when they they’ve spawned but uh very rare you see nes nowadays. It’s a lovely place this it’s I think it’s um a man-made from when they did the nature reserve. So you get a lot of various sorts of birds come up and it’s just it’s a beautiful place cuz it’s nice and quiet. You can hear the road going up towards Constantin what we used to call the new road. Um cuz at one time there used to be no road there. You used to have to go up the loud bank. But um it’s one of my favorite places to come. You can see it’s just really quiet. Could biv bey over here, couldn’t you? Not far from home though, is it? But I suppose if you wanted Yeah, if you just wanted to get out and you know, under the stars for a night. We’ll come along this trail to have a look at this reservoir Glenn reckons exists, but he doesn’t know where. I had a look on the map and you can see it. It’s not a reservoir. It’s like a pond that’s in there. See it? In fact, you wouldn’t even know. You wouldn’t even know that’s a pond. You could set your bivvie bag up in there and sink without realizing. But it’s a lovely place. So, found some woodland here. We’re going to have a look have a look and see what’s there. Good bivy in there. Yeah, bit close together. The trees I like when they’re all spaced out when you got plenty of room. And I like the surface when it’s like flat with leaves and that. [Music] Burn up football ground woodland. Never heard of it. Doesn’t look like a football ground to me. Like, oh, you know what? It has been. I can see goalposts. Look like it been there 50 years. So, me and Glenn are just about to go down this trail down to um Lanchester, but it’s a trail we’re both haven’t been on for years. So I don’t know how ridable it is. It’s classed as a bridal way like so hopefully it shouldn’t be too bad. When was the last time you came down? Oh years and years and years ago. I thought it was further along. So that just shows you how long ago it is. All right. So this you know P bank. I don’t know if you know the area. Um that’s the way I normally go. But uh in the winter that’s probably unrable but because it’s a dry day. Well it’s been raining last night like. So we’ll see what it’s like. See you at the bottom. Hopefully there’s no nails. [Applause] I’m trying to say bloody hell, but I cannot. That’s worse than the last time I came down. It’s extremely narrow. I don’t think it’s ever been like massively ridable. This This is more like a foot path, isn’t it? Than a bridal wing. [Music] [Applause] I suppose if you have a load of bottle, you could uh blast down here, but I haven’t. Oh, I’m soft. [Music] Ah, it looks a bit better. I’m just about right with one hand now on this terrain. It’s widened a bit. Lovely down here. I should come down here more often. Usually I just go down on the road, but uh I hate going down on the road cuz I I find it dangerous. But I suppose you could class this as dangerous if you fall off. I suppose better than being hit by a corner. Right, I’m going to put the camera away cuz riding with one hand’s probably not advisable. [Applause] Yeah, I think I’ll start coming down this way more often. [Music] Could have your wits about you coming down here, though. This bit’s not too bad now. Definitely improved. Imagine going up. Hard enough going down. Never mind going up. [Music] You know what? I’m lost. So, I have been down this trail quite a few times and I don’t know what happened. I was so concentrating on the on the trail cuz it was getting really technical. I think I’ve took a wrong turn and I’ve ended up on a a trail that’s not even marked on the map. I can see that I’m uh I’ve come off the the br the actual bridal way and Glenn’s waiting for us somewhere. I think I’m like half a mile off track. Um so anyway, lost again. The only thing is I’m having to go back on these trails uphill, which is fair enough, I suppose. Don’t know how I made that mistake. When I get back on the bridal way, I’m going to have a look on the map and see where it went wrong or where I went wrong. It’s amazing what mountain bikes will go over, isn’t it? Just when you think I can’t ride over that. So, I’m backtracking now. I was too busy concentrating on me camera trying to get some uh shots. Well, that’s part of the adventure in it. I’m back on track. I can see why I missed this cuz all of this is overgrown. An actual trail I was on was like a clear pathway to go on it. So, I naturally just followed it. You wouldn’t I mean, you can’t see this, can you? I’m surprised Glenn didn’t go the wrong way either. There’s me with a car. No, I don’t think I’ll go down this way again. So, I’m now at the Molton picnic site. Have no idea what happened there. Like, so Glenn reckons he’s waiting for us at the bottom of the brideway. And I’ve got to the bottom eventually call it a brideway and he’s not there. So, I think he’s come off course as well. So, we’re both lost. Did I tell you that he’s uh wrote a book about what happened to him? You know, when he lost his leg? I’ll get him to talk about it later. Um, and it’s just been released in his book is called Lost to Be Found. What an app name for this video. So, here’s Glenn. Well, we’re lost Glenn, but now we’re found. Lost to be found. With a map got lost. So, I was I was just telling the people about your book and telling them it was called Lost to Be Found. Lost to be found. E. Should I add a picture of this trip, man, on the front? It’s an ideal example, isn’t it? Being lost to be found. Well, we’re on Lanchester, Lanchester Valley route. [Applause] Sort of like a relief to get on to stuff like this, away from the road and away from breaking your neck. I’m just thinking there about uh all the bikes I’ve had in me life. Not that many actually. My first bike was called a Super S. was a bit like um like a mini chopper and it was uh yellow. I had that for years and then me mom actually felt sorry for us cuz I was playing around with me mates at the time who were on uh grifters and that by then. So she bought us a grifter secondhand. Um I think it was like a rey orange quite unusual color, not the normal colors you could get. And then I had that for right up until it got stolen. Me dad left it in the garden. Somebody stole it. And then I had Oh, that was it. I was at art college. And by the time I finished the course, which lasted two years, there was some sort of like delay with me grant back in the day when he got grants. And by the time I got the grant, when it came through, I had uh finished the course. So I so I spent the money on a bike and the bike I had that I had me eye on Oh, it was a brilliant bike at the time was called a Rally Technium Chill. Super light. Well, I thought it was at the time. I hadn’t rode a bike with how many gears did it have? 7 21 maybe 18 gears. I can’t remember. had that for a few years. It was white, completely white. Had that for a few years, sold that. And then in me mid20s, I had a mid to late 20s, I had a Sar Purple Terror Tracks. I remember I wrote some music for um for this musical local theater and the paid is not much like but but I spent the money on a bike and then a few years later that got stolen. That was me pride and joy and then I saved up every penny I had for over a year to buy a rock lobster Fuji stout light steel frame and then I upgraded it to Sid Forks. Oh, it was mint. But uh I sold that after a few years and bought myself a Merlin M 4 that was white. Absolutely brilliant bike. And that’s when 29ers came in and I just had to have one. Um and I wanted a carbon one. And that is the bike you see on some of my other videos when I’m bike packing and that. Had that 10 years now. In fact, I’m doing a restoration job on it at the minute and I might make a video. Right. Just wait for Glenn. And then me latest bike is the one I’m on now, which is uh which I love. So, all right. Now, it’s a bit longwinded like. So, what uh what was your first bike and what what bags did you have? Put them in the comments. Be interested to know. Well, when I was really little, like I don’t know, probably around about three years old, it didn’t start on bikes. I started with uh I had a little red tractor with a trailer and it used to steal over at me nana and granddad’s over at homeside terrace at Craad. So, that was when I first started off like with wheels, I would say. And I can remember having a Tonka dumper truck, but not one of these plastic ones, like an oldfashioned, the proper ones, a metal one. And then uh I think my earliest memories were probably going from like uh a little bike with stabilizers on, but I can’t tell you what make it was. And then as I got older, I remember I suppose the most popular bike I had was a Grifter. Everybody had a Grifter. Either a Grifter or a Chopper. And I had a Grifter. And we used to treat it like a I used to treat it like a BMX, but I mean it was obviously heavy. And it had the old Sturi Archer gears, three-speed, and uh the little toggle on it always used to snap, so you used to lose your gears. So, I used to get an old spoke and stick it in and jam it into second gear. And well, I went miles and miles on that bike. And I had a little uh rally boxer when I was little and I painted it up bright purple. I think I snapped the forks on it doing tricks and then uh I had a oh me dad mom and dad bought us a racer bright red shiny racer and I went all over on that but um I was coming down Cook Gate Bank and a bus blew us off and it kind of put us off riding for a little bit if you like and even to this day now I hate going down big steep banks like at Lanchester and uh flying down I’m always caught cautious in case something knocks us off. And then uh from bikes, push bikes, obviously it was an evolution, wasn’t it? The next thing was motorbikes when I was 16. Uh which didn’t go down well with my mom. My dad bought us this little uh Yamaha TR80 trails bike that was on the road and uh I rode it for a little bit and then I thought, “Oh, I’m going to I’m going to paint it.” So, I took it all to bits and it never got put back together. And me nana, me my dad’s mom, bless her, uh she gave us the deposit to go and buy this 50cc Suzuki and it was brand new. But, uh you’d be lucky if it did 30 mph off a cliff. And I used to have to go through to Durham every day in the winter. Oh, it was freezing. Uh, and then when I passed I think I passed me test and I went and got a 125, I got a um a Yamaha RD 125. What an epic bike that was. Uh, and from there I got a 350. And then that was it for me. Bikes, I suppose. It’s incredible that you came down that sketchy trail. How did you do it? Oh, I did. Well, it’s easier for me to come down on me bike than walk. So, I just come do it on me bike. That’s where I always think sometimes I struggle to walk certain areas if I haven’t got me bike and I think you I have me bike, I’d be straight doing that. So, Lee was talking about how what happened why with my leg. So when I was 27, I got a giant cell tumor in my knee. Um they took it out and about seven months later it returned. So they did a thing called limb salvage. Um and this is where I get like my username cuts. They put a cuts prosthesis into my leg. So it’s like a big piece of surgical steel and it replaced all the diseased bone. Um unfortunately over the years this just kept getting infected. So I probably went over 10 years and then an operation went wrong where they tried to remove my kneecap. So in the end I just elected to have a above knee amputation and from there I always liked cycling. I wanted to get back into riding. Um and I’d been looking on YouTube and seen this guy riding with this amazing knee. So I got in touch with them and long story short ended up getting uh on a like a trial on the knee uh first person in the UK and then from there I’ve just continue to ride with the knee and purchasing them when I can and getting support off companies when I can to help with funding for it. Um so this is the latest generation 3. Um it’s called an Infiniti. So um it’s a pretty good piece of kit. [Music] Hey, [Music] I’ve just stopped I just thought I’ll tell you the story of how me and Glenn become mates. Uh about 12 years ago, I would say 12 years. 12 years ago, me and Michelle were on Stanley High Street. I think we’d been to a card shop or something. And anyway, there was this bloke passed on a bike and I was like amazed at the bike because it was I think it was at the time the first fat bike I had seen, but it was made out of titanium and it had upside down suspension forks and uh and the bloke was riding it looked like ultra cool and all that and I was like and I thought he must be lost. He kind of be from Stanley, you know, not I’m putting Stanley down anyway. I just thought he’s not from around here. Um cuz I’d never seen him before. And uh but when I looked again like looked twice, I noticed he had like a prosthetic leg and his leg looked like it was made out of the same material as these like top of the range bike. He was like all blended into one like Robocop kind of thing. You know what I mean? And I was like I couldn’t get over it. Me and Michelle just looked at each other like couldn’t believe what I just seen and he was riding like really fast and like you know like really efficiently and all that. And I was like I can’t get over that. Like how inspirational. Um anyway, like a few weeks went on and I thought I I want to go for a ride with him. Like I want to go for a ride with him. So I start I remember looking on the internet and just researching some trails and the photo come up and it was Glenn on this photo and it was a link to his blog cuz he writes a blog called Cot 68. Is that right? All right. Postamp Adventures. Postamp Adventures. He still writes them. Flying a lens. Um, so anyway, Michelle sent him a a message um on about me that you know what I mean and we arranged to meet and we’ve been mates ever since. Me, him, and John, the other lad on that one of the previous videos. So, all right. So, it was just amazing. And that was it. Do you know where he lives? I’ve been tracking him down for like months as well. He lives two streets away and he’s lived there for decades. [Music] Hey, [Music] so I’m just telling Lee back in the day there’s a place called the Black Path over by um South Moore where I used to live and we used to we ride up it now but uh back in the day when I was about 3 years old I went up there by myself with I had a Labrador at the time and I had me wheelbarrow and I was collecting coal and I was going up me nan and granddad’s a kaya and u there’s three stones at the top of the path and I’m saying to Lee they’re still there but they’re tiny now cuz they’ve all been weathered away And back in the day, there was no mobile phones. So when my mom’s uh sister, they used to arrange to meet if she’d been up or say on a Tuesday. She would say, “Oh, I’ll meet you at the Three Stones on the Friday at such and such a time.” And it was like a family meeting sort of place cuz you couldn’t just ring someone up. You know what I mean? They used to have the red pillar boxes, but that was it. They were too expensive back in the day. People couldn’t afford them. So yeah, I’ve got some good memories over there cuz my mom scared us with Dicky Dog when I escaped and went up there by myself. Dicky Dog. Oh, he was this man that used to live in the cold pits and he used to catch naughty boys who went up there by themselves. Straight on. [Applause] Then there’s a bit that gets technical, but it’ll be now to you. So this this here is part of what they call the heritage trail for South Moore and there’s a few of these signs dotted around and reading this there’s a 5m circular walk which we’ve probably done all of the sites I think there’s eight heritage sites in south one quake houses unfortunately vandals has wrecked a lot of the information but it even for somebody that lives locally It’s quite interesting when you’re reading about things. So, I’m just telling Lee about um why the rescue station was here and where the old hospital used to be. The miners used to like own all of the land over there where the new houses are. Um there’s loads of pits. I mean, like the Billy pits mentioned. I don’t even know where that is. Um but there was the Kitty. Uh there was Craghead. There was the Charlie. I always associated the Charlie with the brick flats where they used to make the old bricks and um you can kind of see on a few of these pictures that they’ve got big chimlies like cooling towers. So, as a kid, I can remember they had this massive coolant. Well, it was big to me at the time, and it was a big coolant tower, and we always called it the Charlie. Um, and I can remember when it got knocked down. Um, some I would just be a kid then. But, um, there’s some really interesting stuff about local community and how the miners all come together and they used to look after each other and, you know, the welfare hospital. It’s um, it’s just a shame that they don’t get looked after. We’ve probably rode all these routes and haven’t noticed a lot of the signs. Well, I come past you all the time. I’ve never I’ve been coming past you for like over 15 years. I’ve never noticed that. So, my nana, she she ended up in the hospital that used to be over here. It was a good little community hospital. It used to offer patients like rest bike care and you used to go there for your X-rays at one time. I think that’s where I I had my first X-ray there when I got diagnosed with my knee. We’re here and you can see where the hospital used to be. And then we know where the RC school is like St. Mary’s which is just behind us here. And then Middles Farm was over that way and what they called the limes. And as a kid we always called the the wood further up the pines. and we used to play there when we were kids. There’s so much change. That old building that you can see in this picture is definitely what is Rever Boats now. I mean, Rever Boats has been there as long as I can remember it, but back in the day, that would have been the rescue station. And then I would imagine whoever lived in rescue station house was like the managers or things like that. [Applause] left. Right, that’s it. That’s the end of video. I hope you enjoyed Glenn’s uh Jackori stories of when he was younger and that and the local area. Been getting run off life for being too posh. Too posh. No, I noticed when I turned the camera on beforehand, he’s like, “Oh, hey, oh, it was great when I was a kid doing fantastic.” And as soon as I put the camera on, he’s like, “When I was a child, I used to come down here on my bicycle.” Well, I like to ride my bicycle. Anyway, that’s it. So, hopefully Glenn will be telling you more stories, some more nostalgia, uh, and more knowledge of the area because he’s got much more knowledge than me. All right. Can buy me a book. All right. But I if you’re interested, I’ll put the link down below. So, see you in the next one.