Bikes-for golfers, disabled

[shootingstar]

Bumped into this local website...strange how clueless I can be about local stuff related to bikes..

A local manufacturer/distributor has a bike for kids with cerebral palsy:
http://www.pacific-cycles.com/

Then click on MICAH…a bike for children with cerebral palsy and other related disabilities/similar neurolocomotor problems.

A bike for getting around the hot blazing golf course. Looks good to me. Course I don't golf..and probably never will. I used to live 1/2 block away from a 9-hole golf course for over 10 years...and then other direction 1/2 km. away was driving range. Never used either facility.

But maybe this bike provides a tad more foot traffic..in an easier way.

[NbyNW]

Very cool!

I interviewed a couple of adults with CP for my thesis last year. I think it's really great when companies are creating products that allow people w/ disabilities to enjoy activities that us able-bodied folks might take for granted.

[shootingstar]

Indeed, ...taking for granted the bike riding skill.

I had 2 different long-time close friends who could not ride a bike. They were both disabled. One had a form of severe eye astigmatism since childhood and some other eye problem, where her eyeballs could not stay still. She was legally blind but could see abit by bringing up textbooks close to her face. She could not drive nor ride bike...because of her limited vision. Now, she knew about blind cyclists..but she didn't want to get into that. Not all disabled folks want to be athletic. (but she was very accomplished in her own right and very outgoing as a person).

Other woman had childhood polio and hence her 1 leg was permanently rigid/paralyzed. Though she did not bike, she did go for long hikes and camping in the mountains. Again she was envious of getting around more quickly by bike.

On the athletic side, related to cycling, but it's wheelchair racing... I did work for a few years at a rehabiliation hospital for spinal cord injured adults. The first competitive bike race I saw in person as a spectator, was...a national wheelchair race. It was inspiring.

Rick Hansen, who is a Canadian paraplegic that wheelchaired around the world (Man in Motion tour) to raise money and awareness of spinal cord injuries, wheeled into our Toronto hospital on his final last stop in Canada after his worldwide ride.. it was deeply emotional and inspiring...for patients (many of them paralyzed for life in their prime, some initially suicidal) and for health care staff.

I try to remember these other athletes..if I have a lousy cycling day... this was about 8 years before I returned to cycling.