Paraplegic Feyerabend rides for cure Paraplegic Feyerabend rides for cure (August 20, 2004)

by Jeb Bing

S ometime today, Pleasanton paraplegic Kirk Feyerabend should reach Stacy, Minn., near Minneapolis, a detour he took after leaving Pleasanton a week ago on his cross-country motorcycle ride to raise money for spinal cord research. He rode out of town from his home in the California Reflections community off Stanley Boulevard with the support of fellow motorcycling enthusiasts and neighbors, heading south along Highway 1 and then over to Bakersfield, where he was to meet up with Dave Barr, another handicapped cyclist who lost his legs in a land mine accident in Angola. But trouble with Feyerabend's specially equipped demonstrator cycle with retractable support wheels in back has him heading in the motorhome accompanying him to the manufacturer in Stacy for repairs. From there he'll re-launch a 17,000-mile trip that will take him across the northern states, to New York and other East Coast cities, to Florida and then back home through the South, Houston and to his rendezvous with Barr in Bakersfield before reaching Pleasanton in late September.

Feyerabend, a sales executive in the semiconductor industry, is well known in motorcycle racing circles, often placing at the top of is dirt race track competitions in the national Supermoto TT races at Carlsbad, Mesa Marin and other West Coast raceways. But in June 2000, riding in a two-day organized off road event called the "Big Boot Trail" near Arcata, riding a Yamaha YZ400F, he was speeding along a single-track trail when he hit a knarly tree stump, flew over the handlebars and hit his head on a rock. He still remembers the audible "crunch," and then, ending up on his stomach, realizing that he had no feeling below chest level.

Since then, Feyerabend, now 48, divorced and living independently in the two-story home he purchased 10 years go in Pleasanton, has dedicated his life to raising funds for spinal cord research. His trip will take him to 16 hospitals and research centers around the country that specialize in this effort through rehabilitation and treatment. Recently, he established the Lap of America Riding for the Cure foundation, with proceeds from contributors and others with a passion for motorcycle riding going to the Reeve-Irvine Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, the Miami Project and the Detroit Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan's new Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery. Once his "outrigger" wheels system is repaired, which allows Feyerabend to retract the "training wheels" type mechanism once on the road, he plans to spend time at each of these research centers.

Since his accident, Feyerabend has traveled frequently to the rehabilitation center at Santa Clara Medical Center in San Jose, working with young people who also are dealing with spinal cord injuries and helping them to adjust to their lives in a wheelchair. He shows how someone with a T-5/6 major spinal cord injury like his can put his life back together again. Although there are different degrees of spinal cord injuries, his is considered complete in that he has no sensitivities below chest level, but has complete control of movements above the breastbone, including his arms, which are now his power source. Except for adding an elevator to the back of his home on Shore Drive and replacing carpeting with wood floors, Feyerabend lives independently. He's a frequent customer at Tully's and other shops on Main Street in a community he finds quite accessible for anyone with handicaps.

Through the Internet, Feyerabend also has developed contacts with those similarly injured, offering advice and encouragement. His communications even extend globally. That's why he will hurry back to Pleasanton from his cross-country fundraising trip to host three friends he met on the Internet from Sweden, including one with a spinal cord injury, who plan to visit here late next month. You can read Feyerabend's reports and follow his travels on his Web site: www.lapofamerica.org.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.