Out Our Front Door has been working to integrate riders with disabilities into all of our five programs. This is crucial as we work to live up to our most important value, welcoming. We have had an Adaptive Program for over five years, in which we provide bike adventures for people with disabilities. But we have always said, it would be the dream to not even need an adaptive program; instead, all of our other four programs would be fully adaptive accessible.
We have had some great success on this front with our Family Overnights program in which families with a youth with a disability have successfully joined our family bike camping trips. Last year alone, we had over twenty families with kids with disabilities join us on our standard family bike camping trips.
Over the last two years, we have been piloting getting adaptive riders engaged in our other programs. We were lucky enough to meet Ryan McGraw. Ryan is an adult with cerebral palsy. He is a very active adult in his 40s. He loves riding bikes but doesn’t have the coordination needed to ride a single bike in traffic. So we worked with him and set him up with one of our volunteers, Rich, who is well-trained and very skilled at riding our custom adaptive tandem bikes. The two of them completed a few test rides together on the Lakefront Path, and then signed up to do an overnight ride last year. A shorter, twenty mile ride out to Camp Shabbona in South Holland. A friendship blossomed between the two of them, and they have been on a couple of other bike camping trips with us.
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As we planned the 2025 season, Ryan and Rich wanted to get more involved with OOFD, and specifically, they wanted to ride more as well as recruit other adults with disabilities to join our overnights. So they became the leaders of the Bike Buds Program which would specifically do outreach to adults with disabilities and work with them one on one to encourage them to come bike camping with us and answer questions they may have. As a part of this program, we set aside five rides that we would open to adaptive riders, some of our shorter rides as well as a few of the medium distance rides.
When Ryan and Rich saw that list, they asked why they couldn’t do the longest ride we run, the 110 mile ride to Starved Rock. Ryan, as many dedicated bicyclists, had the dream of someday completing a century ride, meaning 100 miles in one day. Ryan is no stranger to endurance sports, training and competing in swimming throughout his childhood, as well as completing several triathlons and a half marathon. Thus, he is very much aware of his physical abilities.
I said that 110 miles might be quite the challenge on a tandem bike, but if they would like to go for it, we would help make it happen. So I got in touch with the volunteers that would be leading that ride, and everyone of them stepped up. The driver for that ride drove around the city a couple times to borrow a special bike rack for his car because Rich and Ryan figured they would ride maybe about 75 of the miles, then they may need to get a ride the rest of the way.
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The big day came, and Rich and Ryan showed up with the rest of the twenty other adults to our partner bike shop, Blue City Cycles, in Bridgeport to start the ride. Everything was set to pick them up in the car about 75 miles into the ride. But once they got to that mile marker, Ryan, said he had more in him, and he wanted to keep going. Rich, however, was pretty worn out from piloting the tandem for that long of a distance, much of which was on gravel! So they were about to get into the car, when one of the other riders on the ride, Ted, offered to step in and pilot the tandem for Ryan. Rich gave Ted the bike to do some test rides on it without Ryan on the bike to make sure Ted felt comfortable on the bike. He was. And so Rich hopped onto Ted’s standard bike, and Ted subbed in for Rich to ride the tandem bike with Ryan the remaining 35 miles to camp! Ryan had ridden 110 miles in one day. The first century of his life!
This story so beautifully captures the welcoming spirit of Out Our Front Door. We are working to make sure we break down as many physical and mental barriers to get any and all riders out on the bike adventures of a lifetime. From the driving guide getting the bike rack, to Rich and Ryan going big and choosing the most challenging ride we offer, to Ted stepping in to support Ryan in completing such a life milestone, and most importantly, Ryan himself for having the ambition and grit to not just sign up for such a challenging ride but to complete it! Can’t thank everyone involved enough for this beautifully inspiring story of support, community, and adventure.
