It is really difficult to understate the importance of inclusive sport for our athletes or anyone with a disability both for physical and mental health. Often it can be tough to find a sport that you can compete with your friends with or even just a sport where you can do it with them without any extra support. Being able to do something completely independently and shred with others is one of the best feelings anyone with a disability can expirience.
The Bowhead adaptive mountain bike allows for just that. The combination of suspension, articulation, and power allows riders of different disabilities to be able to easily hop in the bike and power it up to any trail. The articulation of the front suspension allows the bike to sidehill and get onto trails that no other adaptive mountain bike can make it onto. The 7 inches of back travel and 7 inches of combined front suspension makes rough rocky trails or even jumps, completely possible. Essentially as far as the rider wants to take it, the Bowhead is game.
High Fives was fortunate to have a Bowhead Reach donated last summer. High Fives allowed athletes to use it at our different bike camps. Each time anyone got on it, they always got out of it with the same expression.. a big smile!
At our Northstar Mountain Bike Camp High Fives Athlete and Paralympian Ricci Kilgore got out on the downhill trails on the Bowhead and was immediately able to shred down. Within one quick lap of the parking lot you could already see her smile from a distance, “to the top” she said and b-lined it for the chairlift.
We were all sitting at the bottom of the mountain only a short time later when we could begin to see dust flying on the mountain above us as Ricci was blasting down the mountain. She nailed the bottom part of the run with everyone watching and didn’t even slow down a little when she yelled “going for more” to all of us. Ricci did a few more laps and when she eventually got off the bike her smile did not fade for the rest of the day.
Seeing the power this technology had on making such a great experience was really powerful. Riding bikes is one of the best things ever and being able to share that will High Fives athletes is something that makes us all very happy.
“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike”
– John F Kennedy
