Y’know,we hear all the time about how you can do anything if you have enoughdetermination, an’ you think; yeah, Riiiiight. After all, determination willonly get you so far, and then there has to be some other factors kickin’ in tosee you through. Well, my estimation of how far determination will get you hasdrastically changed in the last few days!
Igot an e-mail from a guy named Stan Snodgrass who rides a trike. Now this initself ain’t unusual, but the fact that he’s a quadriplegic damn sure ISunusual! I’ve seen paraplegics ride in specially constructed trikes, and mywife, Reggie, who’s paralyzed on her left side rides one I built her, butremember; Quadriplegic means not only their legs are paralyzed, but their armstoo. Think how difficult it must have been for Stan to get the courage to startthis project, and to ride it when it was done. The guy’s amazing!
You’veprobably seen the wheelchair trike that Orange County Choppers built a coupleof years ago, and anybody with enough cash can have one built, but that’s notwhat Stan did. Sure, he enlisted some friends to help him out on the build, buthe designed the entire thing, learned to weld, and handled most of the weldinghimself! Yeah! Think about what that means as far as frustration, pain, andeffort, and you’ll see how truly special his ride is!
Towatch the video of Stan’s first test ride, just click on this link, then hisstory in his own words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qytcK8gDbXs
“11 yrs ago I broke my neck in a bmx bicycle jump, leaving me a c5-c6quad,” Stan said. “I have no movement below the shoulders and onlypartial arm movement, partial wrist function, and no hand function. I used toride street and dirt bikes before I got hurt, so my love for biking neverdisappeared; it only got delayed.”
“Two years ago I sawa Tomco bike sidecar rig for a wheelchair user and thought I’ll bet I couldmodify it to work for me, so I bought the rig. It was a slow little CB400Honda, but it got me riding again. After riding a while, I quickly sold myhandicap van, determining that I would become a hardcore bike lovin’ fool oncemore! After a year, that little bike gave up the ghost ‘cause I rode the lifeout of it, so now I had no transportation at all.”
“Overthe summer I bought a few “fixer upper” bikes to make a bit of money, which Idid, then took that money and bought an ‘86 vfr700 Honda that wasn’t running,for 500 bucks. After fixing the dirty kill switch, I had it running the nextday. After a good carb cleaning and some oil leaks sealed up, I had a greatrunning bike, so instead of selling it I said, ‘damn… That bike would beawesome if I could drive the beast,’ and made my mind up to make ithappen!!”
“Withthe help of my good friend, Nick Spano, and my good bud James Pratt, we set myideas in motion. Nick is my caregiver, and he stepped up to the plate to helpme five days a week, but he had no prior mechanical experience. Let’s just sayhe’s learned a lot since helping me! He and his wife have become really goodfriends to me, and Nick basically turned wrenches and screwdrivers, and cutmetal for me to weld.”
“Jamesis the owner of Bratts Custumz in Apple Valley, CA. He’s also in a wheelchair,but owns his own fabrication shop, and let me use any tooling and weldingequipment I needed, plus the use of his garage. He did the heavy duty welds forme on everything structural that I designed, while I did all the littleintricate welds on stuff like my steering outrigger/tie rod connection, myelbow operated throttle, my elbow operated shifter, and many other small thingslike handle bars, etc.”
“Garry,the owner of EFM auto clutch, donated a clutch for my bike allowing me to ditchthe clutch lever. It works great, and riding this trike wouldn’t have beenpossible without it, so a great big thanks to Garry, James, and Nick forhelping me achieve my goal. You guys rock!!!”
“A lot of people are inspired by my bike, (and myself, I suppose,) and Ilove the fact that my bike is way different from the rest, and quite fast andloud. I’ve had it up to 95 mph in fourth, but would love to really push it tosee what she can do. Maybe I’ll even set a quadriplegic land speed recordsomeday. Why not, right?”
“Peoplesometimes say things like “genius” or “incredible” when they see my bike in person,but I’m quick to point out that I’m no genius, or anything too special. What Iam is damn stubborn! I’m too stubborn to quit, too stubborn to believe I can’t,too stubborn to just roll over and die, and too stubborn to be sad aboutlife.”
“Ilove to ride and show my bike, and I also compete in pool tournaments, which Ido very well at. I also like to paint photo realistic art, and once in a while,I like to jam some blues on my slide guitar, keyboard, or harmonica. Myphilosophy is find something that makes you happy, and pursue that happinesswith a stubborn determination, cherish your family and friends, and never giveup on doing something new, or something that will make you happy.”
“Lifeis good, and it is what you make of it!”
Ride on, Stan! Maybe some day we’ll get ya on a Harley!!
-Buckshot
