Article: Berkeley shop adapts bikes for any disability

[Guest guest]

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