Washington student, Jordan Griffin, had a dream to go downhill mountain biking with his friends. Since he is a paraplegic, he needed special equipment to realize this dream, so one of his friends built it for him.
Griffin’s friend, Spencer Sare, built this special bike and detailed the process for his senior project in his engineering curriculum at Washington State University. These two sets of twins Jordan and Josh Griffin and Spencer and Sam Sare have been friends for over a decade.
Sare remarked:
“When we started last September, everyone kind of laughed at us and said we couldn’t do it.”
Three of Sare’s fellow mechanical engineering students helped him out on the project.
Jordan Griffin said this about biking:
“When I was looking all the different adaptive sports I could do, I had mentioned it (downhill biking) to Spencer briefly. I didn’t really think he was actually going to build one.”
If you are wondering what adaptive sports are, the Achievement Centers for Children describe them as:
“Adapted sports are competitive sports for individuals with disabilities. While the adapted sports often parallel existing sports played by able-bodied athletes, there may be some modifications in the equipment and rules to meet the needs of the participants.”
The design was based on existing equipment, but it was improved with suggestions from real riders. The bike took about three months for these students to build. To fund the project, they used a grant from the school, some of their own funds, and donations from a local church to raise the $6,500 needed to complete the project.
Sare’s bike was much lighter than other versions of this technology. They also changed the suspension and the center of gravity on the bike. They made the parts more modular than other bikes of this kind. The front pieces could be easily interchanged for other parts. The guys obviously earned an A for the project and Griffin loved it. Griffin said it was “10 times better” than he expected.
This is the amazing bike:
For more on adaptive biking, see the video below:
https://youtu.be/ELeAB2O19WE
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
