Braden Riding Like the Wind – by Shane

Riding a bicycle isn’t difficult for most of us. There’s a reason for the expression, “It’s like riding a bike.” But for many children with diverse abilities riding a two-wheeler on their own can be very challenging. Think about it. In order to ride a bike you have to be focused in the direction you’re riding, balance, pedal and steer. You have to pay attention to your surroundings and be alert. And most importantly, you have to do all that stuff at the same time!

My son Braden is 12 and has autism. My wife and I have known that Braden has the balance to ride a bike. Since he was six he has ridden a trailer cycle that was attached to my mountain bike. He went where I went. And he loved it. He was always calm like it was therapy for him.

Every now and then, while riding in the neighborhood, we would come across kids from school that knew Braden. Many of them were fascinated by the trailer cycle and they wanted to give it a try. None of them could balance well enough. They all freaked out and felt compelled to stick their feet out to help them balance. So we knew Braden could balance himself well. And we attribute that to his years of riding the trailer cycle.

But we still didn’t know if he could put all the skills together and ride a bike by himself. We considered buying him a special bike we thought met his needs. We thought about a regular bike, but with huge training wheels. And we even thought maybe a recumbent trike was the thing for Braden. If you followed the links you notice none of that stuff is especially inexpensive. We never jumped on any of those options.

We ended up buying a certain bike at a local bike shop in town. We knew the Jamis Hudson was the perfect bike for Braden as soon as we learned about it and as soon as he rode it. He had no problem and we had never seen a bike like this before. The bike’s simplicity is really what sold us on it. Yes, the bike is lightweight and comfortable. But many bikes meet those requirements. The main points about this bike that made it stand out:

• One brake lever that operates both front and rear brakes simultaneously, but puts most of the stopping power in the rear. That means he can’t accidentally stop with the wrong brake and go flying over the handle bars to the doom of his front teeth.
• All gearing is in the rear hub. That means, unlike conventional bikes, he doesn’t have to be pedaling when he switches gears. No derailleurs but he still gets gears.

Once we got the bike in Braden’s size we still weren’t really sure how well he would be able to ride it. So we took him and his bike to the football field at the local high school. You know, because the surface is soft in case he crashes, and the grass is cut really low so it’s still easy to ride on.

He took to it like a duck in water. That was in March. He required very little instruction. And he’s still riding. Daily. Yes, he can be a bit erratic at times and he likes to ride over everything that has any kind of texture, but he’s good. I think he has ridden his new bike every day since we got it, barring bad weather. His bike is the object of his affection. He probably thinks the bike seat should be glued to his butt because every day when I get home from work his top request is to go on a bike ride. The people in the neighborhood see us often. Braden rides like the wind blows and now when I ride I don’t have to tow an extra 100+ lbs behind me. We’re all happy.