Re: Article: Berkeley shop adapts bikes for any disability

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sending this out, Alana! I LOVE the BORP Adaptive Cycling

Center. Joe and I went this past September and started cycling on

Saturday mornings. We use a tandem recumbent trike, which is made for

two people and very low to the ground. This past autumn we completed a

10 mile bike ride to raise money for BORP. I was very sore, but so

proud to be able to find another way to get exercise.

<3Kendra

>

> I thought that those of you with moderate mobility might find this of

> interest. I have a lot of friends who really enjoy this program.

>

> Alana

>

>

> Berkeley shop adapts bikes for any disability

> Ostler, Chronicle Staff Writer

>

> Thursday, November 27, 2008

>

> (11-26) 19:41 PST -- Cast your memory back to the age of 5 or 6, when

> your adult helper let go and you wobbled off on your first solo

> bicycle ride.

>

> What was that incredible feeling?

>

> Freedom.

>

> But what if that freedom was never available to you?

>

> A woman named Meida recently contacted the Adaptive Cycling Center at

> Berkeley's Aquatic Park. The weathered wooden building is known to

> regulars as the BORP bike house, as in the Bay Area Outreach &

> Recreation Program. Meida explained that she was born without arms

> and wanted to ride a bike. She had ridden tandem but hoped to ride

> alone. She dreamed of someday riding across the Golden Gate Bridge.

>

> The problem: Cycles are factory-made for people with a wide variety

> of physical disabilities, but there is no solo bike made for a person

> with no use of her arms.

>

> The problem with that problem: Greg Milano, BORP director of cycling

> and the man who dreamed up the concept of the Adaptive Cycling

> Center, doesn't see problems as problems.

>

> Milano and Greiner, one of the bike house's 30 or so regular

> volunteers, went to work. They pondered, puttered and pounded, and

> pieced together a three-wheeled bike on which the rider performs all

> functions - pedaling, braking, turning, gear-shifting - with her legs.

>

> Meida came to the Cycling Center and rode off down the trail with

> friends. Alone. Free.

>

> The bike house is unique. There are other adaptive cycling centers in

> the country, but very few offer the element of independent-use, drop-

> in riding, as opposed to organized and scheduled group activities.

> And probably no other such center has a variety of bikes equal to the

> bike house fleet.

>

> Trooper , a Bay Area wheelchair basketball superstar and a

> bike house regular, said with a laugh, " You can be a hemiplegic dwarf

> with one arm and blind in one eye, and Greg will build a bike for

> you. "

>

> Adapted for almost anyone

> What they have developed at the bike house is a community of

> athletes, from kids to elderly riders to casual riders to hard-core

> Paralympians.

>

> All are drawn to the barnlike, once-abandoned building about the size

> of a two-car garage that is packed solid with a crazy array of bikes.

> New riders receive instruction and safety training and are fitted

> onto a bike.

>

> " We've been able to make a bike work for pretty much everyone who

> could make a rotating motion of some sort with at least one leg or

> one arm, " Milano said. " We're working on bikes that are propelled by

> a push-pull motion. "

>

> The riders head out, alone or in groups, and burn up the Aquatic

> Park's 30 miles of trails, returning their bikes when they're done.

> If this was only about exercise, gym equipment and stationary bikes

> would work. But stationary bikes are stationary.

>

> " My claim to fame is that I've seen 11 or 12 snakes, " Kern

> said. " You see a lot of hawks. In a power (wheelchair), you can't

> sneak up on anything. "

>

> Kern had a spinal cord injury 20 years ago and didn't ride a bike

> until she found the Cycling Center. She rides every day the bike

> house is open. The attraction: " Cycling is so wonderful and so

> ordinary. "

>

> Kim Juarez is a water-skier, snow-skier and rock-climber, but much

> prefers cycling.

>

> " Those sports are fun, " Juarez said, " but they didn't give me the

> sense of freedom and joy I get from cycling. And it's great being

> able to outrun my dog, Mia. I always felt guilty that I wasn't giving

> her enough exercise. "

>

> All about fun

> Take a casual ride with a group of the athletes and you can feel the

> freedom. Everyone's got a different story, but they all wind up on

> the trails, having fun.

>

> Cheri Blauwet, a Stanford med school student, lost the use of her

> legs in a farm accident at the age of 1, in Iowa. For years she was

> the only kid she ever saw in a wheelchair, then she discovered

> wheelchair sports. She competed in college athletics and was a member

> of the U.S. team at the last three Paralympics, in wheelchair

> distance racing.

>

> Blauwet, who has won the New York and Boston marathons, says cycling

> is better for her body than chair racing. She rides her own hand-

> crank bike, Blue Lightning.

>

> " There are social barriers at health clubs, " Blauwet said. " It's such

> a confining feeling. You're always a minority, not in a negative way,

> but you're a little different. It's comforting to come to a place

> with people who totally get you. We can share horror stories, share

> success stories. "

>

> Ride with family, friends

> And share the rides with family members. Kern rides with her 4-

> year-old son and said, " He can see me being an athlete. "

>

> Arthur Renowitzky, 21, is paralyzed from the chest down since being

> shot three times in a random robbery outside a nightclub on Market

> Street one year ago. He had been an active athlete, and he sank into

> depression.

>

> " I didn't even think about doing anything, " Renowitzky said. " When

> you can't even get up to feed yourself, you start feeling sorry for

> yourself. "

>

> But he got into BORP's wheelchair basketball program, then learned of

> the Cycling Center, and now he's a regular. Often he rides alongside

> his longtime girlfriend, Tayler Osorio. Renowitzky is starting a

> foundation, Life Goes On, aimed at educating kids about violence and

> disabilities.

>

> At the bike house, nobody is not having fun. Alli Szutu, an employee

> who works with the bikes and riders, found the job on Craigslist and

> fell in love with the place.

>

> " It's amazing, " said the Cal grad student and former gymnast. " It's

> really quality people, they're always upbeat, they come ready to

> ride. The first time someone gets on a bike, it's really amazing to

> watch. We have Saturday youth rides. The other day we put a boy on a

> foot cycle for the first time. It goes three times faster than the

> bike he was used to. He got so excited. "

>

> Opportunity for everyone

> Milano, the Cycling Center director, does not have a physical

> disability. He lives on a small sailboat at a nearby marina, at a

> wheelchair-accessible dock so his friends can visit. His agenda is

> simple.

>

> " I do this work, " he said, " because I want everyone in our community

> to have the opportunity and the ability to participate fully in our

> society. I believe that makes the world a better place for all of us. "

>

> Milano recently received a snapshot from Meida, the woman with no

> arms. In the photo, she was riding her no-hands cycle across the

> Golden Gate Bridge.

>

>

> For more pictures and a video of riders on hand-crank bikes at

> Berkeley's Aquatic Park, go to sfgate.com.

>

> They'll take you for a ride

> BORP in brief

> -- Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP) is a Berkeley

> nonprofit founded in 1976 by people with disabilities.

>

> -- The Adaptive Cycling Center opened in April 2007, at Berkeley's

> Aquatic Park.

>

> Join in

> -- The Cycling Center is open from March through November on

> Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Organized youth rides are held on

> Saturdays.

>

> -- The Center has reduced hours in December, and is closed in January

> and February.

>

> -- Call (510) 849-4663 (extension 306), go to borp.org or write

> cycling@...

>

>

> More to come

> -- BORP, in collaboration with Waterside Workshops, has been awarded

> a $200,000 grant by the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands

> Stewardship Council. The planned improvements include expanding the

> Cycling Center and creating canoeing, rowing and other adaptive water-

> sports facilities

>

> E-mail Ostler at sostler@...

>

> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/27/SPT114C8KE.DTL

>