Cerebral Palsy and Motorcycles

[fatcat216]

I know this one is gonna get zero responses, but, being the slow learner I am, I'll post it anyway.

I have a long term acquaintance who is slowly opening up and confiding a bit. He's got cerebral palsy, and is afflicted in such a way as to be confined to a wheelchair, his speech is impaired and his vision enough that he can't drive.

Tonight I mentioned my upcoming trip to the SX in Minny and asked if he followed any of that. He said no, but it had always been his dream to ride (drive?) a motorcycle.

He also confided his personal challenges in finding a girl, and that he always wanted to be a major league ball player. About the latter he said "God had different plans for him....." Then like so many of us has felt he laughed and said "what the hell it is I have no clue...and personally I think it is a little cruel"....

So, I can't do a lot to help him find God's purpose, or give him his shot at the major leagues.... I most assuredly am the last person on earth to ask for dating advice. But... I do own a motorcycle.

I am just impulsive enough to try the impossible and ill advised.

Making this scheme highly improbable are:
1.) I have not a huge amount of passenger-toting cycle experience.
2.) My road bike is really light.
3.) I'm outweighed by at least 100 pounds making the bike even more unstable.
4.) I have zero experience with the handicapped.

Thoughts?

(Let's try to keep the serious uncomfortable silence and whistling a happy tune while looking the other way to a minimum, please! Even mocking jokes on what a disaster I'm toying with would be preferred. :debil: )

Thanks gang.

 

[IndyMX]

Just my own personal experience..

I took a cousin for a ride one time on a street bike I owned many moons ago. She was not in anyway physically deficient. Just a little bit on the heavy side. I was quite skinny then. She out weighed me a bit. She also had never been on a bike before.

It was not an easy ride to say the least. She had no clue how to ride on the back of a bike. I did not feel very safe at all.

I'd recommend against it, only due to the fact that you'd be risking his and your own safety.

It's certainly hard enough to have someone on there that doesn't have a physical disability like that, but then you add in that aspect, and it turns into a situation that's just too dangerous for both parties.

Perhaps you can rent a bike that has a sidecar? That would be the only way I'd personally feel safe doing something like that.

 

[Chili]

I'd have major concerns given your passenger will have a limited ability to control any body shifting, especially with the weight differences. As Indy suggested a sidecar or one of those Touring bikes that has been converted into a trike would be much safer options if you could find a rental local to you.

 

[tnrider]

anyone with more weight than you, poor coordination, or poor muscle tone can easily take you down. to ride 2-up requires that you function as one. as Chili said - rent a trike.

 

[jaszman]

You're looking for trouble. There are too many things that can go wrong. The only way I will allow this is if you carry a loaded taser with you to off him should trouble develop. Try to find someone slimmer and with fewer emotional prolbems.

 

[IndyMX]

You're looking for trouble. There are too many things that can go wrong. The only way I will allow this is if you carry a loaded taser with you to off him should trouble develop. Try to find someone slimmer and with fewer emotional prolbems.

Cerebral Palsy isn't an emotional problem you nitwit..

The dude can't control his muscles.. He'd be more likely to fall off the back of the bike than to try to do anything she'd need a taser for.. :coocoo: :whoa:

 

[rickyd]

As much as I do not like quads, how about taking him for a ride on one? Definitely take him to a SX :cool:

 

[thorman75]

Do you know any Shriners or bikers that ride with Veterans groups they almost always have someone with a bike/sidecar.

 

[Ol'89r]

Making this scheme highly improbable are:
1.) I have not a huge amount of passenger-toting cycle experience.
2.) My road bike is really light.
3.) I'm outweighed by at least 100 pounds making the bike even more unstable.
4.) I have zero experience with the handicapped.
.

I think you answered your own question fatcat.

I have a considerable amount of experience with disabled people. We designed and built titanium racing wheelchairs and racing accessories for several years. Yeah, really. They race wheelchairs. :nod: Built the first 11 lb. racing chair.

Most of the people I have worked with were paraplegics and quadriplegics. The para's had great upper body strength and balance, they just could not use their legs. The quads had limited upper body strength depending upon the degree of their injury. Most of the quads needed a chest strap to keep them in their chairs and they had limited control of their arms and hands and very limited balance.

Palsy victims are much different as you probably already know. They have limited and sometimes no control over their body movements. Too many involuntary movements to be safe on the back of a motorcycle. And no balance. Of course, this depends on the degree of their affliction. If he is already in a chair, his disease has probably progressed too far.

If I were you I would not try it. Especially if he outweighs you as much as you say. Like others have suggested, take him to a race. Try to find a sidecar or trike to borrow where he sits in it and not on it. It would be much safer for both of you.

Good for you for trying to show this guy a little excitement in his life. Working with handicapable people is very rewarding. :cool: :cool:

 

[oldguy]

Try contacting the Harley Dealer in LaCrosse I would bet they have contacts with a few people either with Trikes or sidecars

 

[Rooster]

I highly admire your desire to help this person out. I agree with the others, it would be a dangerous thing to take him out on two wheels. His safety, as well as yours, would be at risk. I am sure that someone with a disability like that has fantsies about riding a bike, and I don't blame them!

 

[junkjeeps]

Try finding someone that owns a Ural sidecar bike. They are becoming popular with the adventure riding crowd these days.

http://www.ural.com/

 

[fatcat216]

Thanks you guys. You are the most interesting bunch of people I know.
...
I truly appreciate the honesty and open hearts that you showed. Hopefully it isn't a dead idea just yet. ;-) :blah: :blah: :blah:

 

[fatcat216]

Hey. Well, after a few weeks off swimming I made it to the pool and visited with my pal.
I decided I better address this issue head on or I'd be hiding from him for the next six months and that just wasn't gonna do.

So I said Jody- I asked my friends (yeah, okay- so I fibbed a bit) and they all said "no...no...you're crazy... and no way." He laughed and I went on to explain the issue of weight imbalances and leg spasticity and the like. I told him your suggestions of a sidecar, a quad, and taking him to the races. I even mentioned the S & S cycle anniversary celebration and bike builds and river cruises.... and said laughing with raised eyebrow "Any of that interest you?"... he said uh... No. I laughed again and said "yeah- not quite the same thing as being on a bike, is it?" as if any biker or bike fantasizer alive would settle for a bike build when they could sit on the bike and hit the throttle. How lame is that?? (Sorry Gearheads.)

I told him I kept hoping a volunteer would step forward....because it wasn't gonna be happening on my bike! Lol.

Anyway- my pal attempted to rebutt the issues head on, sharing his own concerns about being in a sidecar and getting run over by a car... Then he told me he had actually been on a snowmobile!!! I guess some crazy bus driver (and for some reason the face of the bus driver from the Simpsons comes to mind) took Jody and his brother snowmobiling a few years back.

Anyway, that is my update. I was glad my buddy had experienced that because it is something- He actually even got to drive for a bit!!!....

(Maybe Otto knows how to make this cycle thing happen?) :ride: