Unless you’ve experienced paralysis, it’s hard to fathom the loss of freedom it entails. A single life-altering moment can halt the most mundane daily errands. And impromptu outings with friends? They can become riddled with mobility barriers.
For Roy Tuscany, who was paralyzed from the waist down almost 20 years ago, e-bikes have begun to restore that freedom with surprising speed. Though his 2006 spinal cord injury derailed Tuscany’s dreams of becoming a professional freeskier, it didn’t stop the Reno, Nevada–based athlete’s desire to seek adventure outdoors. It just meant new challenges.
“While accessible parking lots do exist in Tahoe,” Tuscany says, “they don’t exist that close to the places I want to go.”
The good news is that around Lake Tahoe, there are trails everywhere: dirt trails and paved paths galore. All you need is a versatile bike. Two wheels mean freedom—for adventure and essential tasks—but only if you can pedal with an able body. Until now. E-bikes have revolutionized mobility for Tuscany and others like him.
“I utilize my e-bike as an extension of my body,” Tuscany says. “It’s not about how rad you can get or how many laps you can tally. Often it’s my only way to get around.”
Day-to-day needs on those local bike corridors also include simply enjoying them with a friend.
Alex Duff is one of those friends. Five years ago, Duff took a fall from his racing mountain bike and was knocked out during opening day of the Auburn Bike Park. When he regained consciousness in the ICU, he couldn’t remember a thing. He could speak, but he couldn’t move. Duff had cracked his C4 vertebrae and severely injured his spinal cord. The self-proclaimed “overactive” adventure sports athlete was lucky to be alive.
Today, Duff, who splits his time between Truckee and Auburn, California, is a quadriplegic who estimates his body works “at around 35 percent.” He has little feeling below the neck and is in a constant battle against the spasms taking over his body. Most of his strength is spent fighting those spasms, and the little bit that’s left moves his body around.
And Duff, who looks the part of an avid cyclist and active dad at 42, takes advantage of every opportunity to move his body around. On a warm spring day, he heads to the Truckee headquarters of the High Fives Foundation to meet up with his friend, Roy Tuscany, for a bike outing.
Tuscany founded High Fives in 2009 as a way to pay it forward after his ski accident at the Mammoth Mountain terrain park fractured his T12 vertebrae and spine, leaving him partially paralyzed from the belly button down, with the majority of functionality loss below his knees. He has no calf muscles, no foot muscles, and a weak right leg. Still, he can ride effectively with that extra boost of an electric motor.
“E-bikes allow an individual like myself, who has a mobility-limiting injury where I can’t travel that far by foot, to feel like I’m going for a walk,” Tuscany says. “These bikes allow me to move. And movement is life.”
That mantra to move, and “to give a person a hand up instead of a handout,” has fueled High Fives over the past 16 years. The nonprofit has expanded to serve more than 1,000 individuals with life-changing injuries like Tuscany’s and Duff’s, providing over $1 million in empowerment grants and approximately 15,000 one-on-one training sessions while running adaptive sports camps across North America. Whether it’s providing athletes with the financial means to recover or simply procure adaptive equipment, the goal is to help individuals participate in sports again.
“You lose so much more than exercise when you can’t participate physically in sport,” Tuscany says. “When sport is taken away from you, you lose an identity, you lose a community, you lose the thrill of having wind in your face.”
On a sunny April morning, Duff and Tuscany grab an Aventon Level 3 commuter e-bike and an Abound LR cargo fun-hauler. Using a combination of light pedal strokes with the bikes’ on-demand power (thanks to responsive hand throttles), Tuscany can crank the pedals aided by the pedal-assist function, while Duff focuses on overall stability, keeping his feet fixed in place. Once in motion, they confidently ride straight from High Fives’ doors to downtown Truckee under a canopy of blossoming trees.
Delivering up to 70 miles of range (60 for the Abound LR), the Aventon bikes carry the duo first to a Truckee breakfast hot spot to catch up over a cup of coffee. Then it’s on to the Truckee River Legacy Trail, the city’s popular five-mile riverside path. They zoom up to 20 mph along the rushing river, the Mount Rose Wilderness rising in the distance. They ride alongside freight trains, cross bridges, and dart down side streets on the return.
The e-bikes facilitate so much—building friendships, getting outside, and being active. But even more, for Duff and Tuscany, riding means feeling normal again.
“These new bikes create a freedom for me, with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face,” Duff says. “I normally can’t just pedal around. When I clip into a [standard] mountain bike, I can pedal because I’m clipped in, even though I can’t feel my body. When paralyzed, you are often stuck in one place, but now I can just zip around and go any which way I want.”
Beyond cruising the local trails, the High Fives crew finished this spring with an annual surf camp in Santa Cruz, California. To Tuscany’s and Duff’s surprise, the Aventon e-bikes never stopped being used off the water. Avoiding the typical parking hustle—and the confines of blue handicapped parking spaces—meant added exploration and extra time to bounce from house to beach, refueling for lunch and surfing again.
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“There’s such big potential with e-bikes and individuals with disabilities,” says Tuscany, back in the Lake Tahoe area, noting how he now brings his five-year-old son, Gunnar, along in an Aventon Captain’s Chair, which he pairs with the Abound LR. “It’s not just uphill-downhill fun or thrills. This is transportation and access. It’s freedom in every sense.”
Read more about the Aventon Aventure 3 and Aventon Level.3 e-bikes.
Aventon Bikes is dedicated to inspiring adventures, big and small, in all terrains of life, from mountain trails to urban neighborhoods. It’s that simple. Take the ride that moves you.