A clown bike everyone can love

I’ve been known to make a lot of wisecracks about “clownbikes,” and the ineffable human compulsion to try to reinvent the wheels, over and over again — when there is no way, frankly, to improve upon the design of the simple safety bicycle, circa 1885.

But one type of clownbike is beyond reproach, and that is the adaptive bicycles of Hal Honeyman. Honeyman is a legend in making and adapting bicycles to allow people with all sorts of physical challenges be able to ride. In this awesome profile, you can learn about some of the estimated 3,000 children and adults for whom he has provided bike mobility — folks who otherwise would be limited pretty much the their wheelchairs.

Honeyman’s Creative Mobility operation has made everything from hand-cranked recumbants to roadbikes for racers with prosthetic arms. Always with a heavy emphasis on children.

“He opens up a whole new world for kids who’ve never biked before and gives them joy and a real sense of pride,” says Ellie Cummings, a spokeswoman for Easter Seals.

A big Dirt Rag cheer for Hal Honeyman.

Photo: FreedomConcepts.com