2025 / 2026 Adaptive Biking

This year, the Cyclist in Residence Team has delivered our adaptive program at 9 schools, with 10 additional schools booked later this school year, reaching over 200 students along the way. We’ve worked in gymnasiums, courtyards, school fields, and atriums. The students present with a mix of EES, TASC, CSSI, and PLP.

While each student and school are unique, let’s roll through a session of adaptive biking, Youth en Route style. The array of adaptive bikes delivered the week prior to programming, are brought out into the work area before the students arrive. Helmets are displayed with simple signage in pictures next to them : Stop, helmets, bike fit, listen. The teacher and support team begins the daily ritual. Sometimes it is walking to fun music, sometimes this is quiet and intentional yoga; whatever the start up, it always sets the kiddos up for success, especially before starting a new activity. Students are often shown a poster board with pictures of fun activities, and students will be prompted to point to the bike to show they know what they are about to start working on. This allows both a verbal and visual confirmation of the class ahead.  

Everyone tries on a helmet, although there is almost always at least some resistors in the group. Students don’t want to lose the comfort of their nose cancelling headphones, or perhaps a favourite cat-eared headband is preferred over a helmet. The bravest put on a helmet immediately, and head directly for an inspection of the bikes. The resistors, seeing friends, classmates, teachers and the Cyclists in Residence all wearing helmets, lose their fear to curiousity, willingly trading the precious cat ears or headphones for a helmet and joining in the fun.  

For some students, this is the first time they are seeing a bike, or at least one of the adaptive bikes made specially for them. Others have ridden before, either with our team or with parents; these students beeline for the bike that they are familiar with. Some are drawn by the colours, some the unique style of the bikes (Rifton, MOBO, upright trikes), some just want the bike with the basket so their stuffy can ride with them.  

Students are free to explore at their own pace. Some want to understand the mechanics of the bike and how they work, and others just want to jump on and give it a try. Some are not sure how to pedal, so they start out on either our trike using a fixed gear setting  or the Rifton, that allows for full teacher control while students learn the physical mechanics of riding. Little by little, they build up to pedaling on their own, and the realization that they are making the bikes move, stop and steer is often the most rewarding part of any day.

Every class includes one break out moment, from a normally non-verbal student suddenly chatting up a storm while repeating our instructions back to us, pedaling for the first time, to controlled braking in reaction to our handy stop light; each student comes away with a rewarding lesson and accomplishment. The best part of the class though is when the rubber chickens come out for target practice. Nope, you read that correctly. We create an obstacle course with rubber chickens lying on the ground to be mercilessly run over so that everyone can hear them squawk! The giggles are endless and contagious, which is really the best method of learning!