© We Love Cycling
Freeriding on Four Wheels Rather Than Two...
Is mountain biking, downhill style, becoming accessible to wheelchair users?
Although this is certainly not a main stream sport right now, there is a real feeling of excitement and the hope that this could be an opportunity for wheelchair users across the globe to re-enter the world of downhill and freeride mountain biking.
Five years ago mountain biker, Michal Kosik, had a serious accident that left him paralysed from the waist down, with the high possibility that his spinal cord will never heal or repair itself. After spending almost every day in the saddle of a bike Michal was now faced with the prospect that he would no longer be able to enjoy the freedom that the sport of mountain biking had once given him.
But he was determined to find a way back to the sport and eventually with the support of Skoda and some good friends he has re-engineered a four wheel bike that can take on both bike parks and freeride mountain slopes. This offers hope to so many disabled men and women who wish to continue their love of this sport after injury or even take-up mountain biking as a new sport.
A similar ‘bike’ was made by a Canadian rider but nothing of the kind has even been produced in Europe and so Michal set about trying to get the help and support he needed to realise his dream. So in conjunction with the Czech company No Question Bike, they began the five year long project to design and build this very specific four wheel, full suspension mountain bike. And after a lot of trial and error the final product was created.
And where better to use this kind of product than right here in the French region of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. He travelled here along with freeride athlete Richard Gasperotti to ride the steep slopes once again and to create this fantastic video (below) that shows just how versatile the new bike can be on a variety of terrain.
With the Trans-Provence MTB race taking place this week it seems that Provence is fast becoming a mecca for all types of biking, and not just the two wheeled kind! Let’s hope that this is just the start of things and that we will be seeing a lot more bike park, downhill and freeride mountain bikers on four wheels.
