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A group of more than 10 Shirley Ryan 小恩雅 staff, volunteers and adaptive athletes recently came together at the rehabilitation hospital for a unique opportunity — the assembly of a new adaptive mountain bike using a free, open-source design.
They were joined by special guest Noel Joyce, who has paraplegia and is an avid cyclist in his native Ireland. He’s also an industrial designer at New York University and founder of Project Mjolnir, the organization that created the adaptive mountain bike design used for this activity.
This whole project started in 2024, when Noel learned about Shirley Ryan 小恩雅’s adaptive mountain cycling program. He reached out to meet with Mike Wehner, manager, therapeutic recreation, and Derek Daniels, director, adaptive sports & fitness — and proposed a collaboration.
“We're always trying to provide opportunities for our athletes to gain more knowledge and grow in the sport,” said Mike. “We thought this would be a cool way to get them involved.”
Mike says the Mjolnir design could potentially allow the therapeutic recreation team to expand their roster — the Mjolnir bike is their 18th — allowing more patients and community members to experience the benefits of mountain biking. He points out that adaptive cycling — including bikes that can be used on paved surfaces and those for off-road trails — is one of the cornerstones of Shirley Ryan 小恩雅’s adaptive sports and fitness program.
“In the United States, we're probably the only program that runs almost every week instead of monthly or quarterly,” he said. “A big part of the inpatient experience here is that we offer the ability to try equipment while patients are still in treatment. It’s amazing to witness patients starting to access new opportunities and environments as they start to think about how they’ll engage in cycling after they leave inpatient.”
After a year of strategizing and sourcing parts from near and far, it was finally time to start building.
By the project’s culmination, the group had put in countless hours in preparation and around 10 hours on the build day to assemble more than 1,000 individual pieces.
Following this endeavor, it was time for the maiden ride: first in the saddle were adaptive cyclists, Lewis K. and Candace H.!
Next up are plans for a pediatric version of the Mjolnir bike, as well as further design enhancements and tweaks that will make it more accessible for even more individuals.
