The STRIDE Adaptive Sports’ “I Can Bike” program has been teaching children with disabilities to ride a bike for 18 years.
Emma and her ten-year-old twin Ella live on a very steep slope. So, learning to ride a bike was particularly challenging, says their father, Scott Johnson.
“We live on a very steep mountain, and it’s like literally you can coast for like 2 miles down, it’s a 40-degree driveway so there was no flat area to learn and it was hard to try and teach two of them at the same time with one parent,” he said.
Johnson says his daughters at one point became too embarrassed to even try to learn.
“Other kids in their neighborhood that are like two or three years old could ride and so they wouldn’t even get on the bike, one of the appeals here was that all of the kids were learning to ride,” he said.
Enter the five-day STRIDE Adaptive Sports’ “I Can Bike” program, held at Union College.
Emma says the program has been the perfect way to learn.
“It’s cool to experience something like this and I wish other kids who don’t know how to ride a bike can do it too,” she said.
Ella’s having fun, too. Even if riding can be slightly terrifying.
“The bike I currently have, I cannot control,” she said.
The program pairs children with volunteers who stay beside them for the entire week, offering encouragement, support, and balance as they learn to ride during daily 90-minute sessions.
Alex Brame, STRIDE’s executive director, says the goal isn’t just about teaching the children to ride – it’s also about building their confidence.
“Once you can ride a bicycle without training wheels, you’re doing what everybody else can do. That gives you a massive amount of confidence, if you live in a world that tells you that you can’t always achieve everything. All of a sudden you’ve achieved something,” he said.
Brame explains participants first use specially designed bikes that feature a black roller where the back tire on a standard bicycle would normally be. It sits on the ground and functions like a rolling pin.
Each successive day, Brame says the roller becomes narrower without the children’s knowledge.
“As far as they’re concerned this is the bike that they got on Monday it doesn’t change up until Thursday or Friday. But unbeknownst, our colleagues from I Can Bike, the technical people, are changing the roller at the back to make it smaller,” he said.
By the end of the week, they are riding on a standard bike.
Luca Cummings is an 18-year-old who has been volunteering in the program for five years. Cummings enjoys seeing the kids’ skills progress.
“You watch them go from barely being able to stay on say like, a level one roller that’s like almost a complete cylinder on the floor keeping them stable to being able to ride on the bike by themselves around the track,” he said.
Emma, who can now ride on a standard bike independently, is happy she finally learned. She was asked if she plans to continue riding after the program ends.
“Eh, maybe,” Emma said.
On the other hand, her sister, Ella, is excited to continue riding.
“Yes,” Ella said.
