A not-so-stationary bike takes to the Chattanooga streets for a good cause
If you like to exercise, ride a bicycle, work out at a gym, and participate in fundraisers for global charities, then mark July 22 on your calendar. The 2017 Mobile Gym Ride-A-Thon is the perfect way for you to accomplish all of these things at once.
Starting at the Creative Discovery Museum at noon, volunteers will ride a four-person art bike across Chattanooga, through downtown and the South side, to Rossville. Riders will be taking pledges to raise money for the Playing to Live Foundation, a charity that provides art therapy, play therapy, and psychological services to children in disaster areas.
The charity began in 2014 as a response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and has since expanded to other areas. The event is being sponsored by a number of local businesses, to raise awareness about what is possible when small businesses join together to raise funds for a good cause.
So far, the sponsors are Campbell & Associates INC, Wizard Electric, Chattanooga Ink & Toner, Kickstand Bicycles, Chattanooga Motorcycle Collective, Bettieville, Dead Girlz Tattoo Studios, Red Bank Thrift Store, Sluggo’s North Vegetarian Cafe, La Familia Mexican Restaurant, Grand Palace Chattanooga, and Creighton’s Wildflowers Design Studio, and more are being added.
The Ride-A-Thon is centered around a 19-foot-long people-powered art bike that will be as fun to ride as it will be to see on the road. The machine weighs several thousand pounds and will be challenging to ride, so the volunteers will be taking turns. The sponsors are providing riders with refreshments and food, and friends and family are encouraged to join them to support and enjoy the spectacle.
The art bike is the creation of local sculptor Danny Reyes. Attendees of this year’s Chattanooga Film Festival might remember his last project, a life sized cardboard tank that fired flower petals. In his work, Danny seeks to make art that is functional and thought provoking.
He tells us, “I like to create things that make people confused and happy at the same time. I can remember a few times when I was having a really bad day, and I saw some strange art that made me happy. It stuck with me. My goal is to do the same for someone else.”
It was with this spirit that he conceived of the quad-tandem art bike. “I thought it would be really fun for people to see stationary exercise bikes riding down the street. Here you have four things that don’t move, but are designed to mimic a moving experience. I thought it would be something that would stick in people’s minds.”
To make this dream a reality, Danny and a team of volunteers have taken four full body workout bikes (the kind with the moving handles) and attached them to a motorcycle chassis to create the world’s first quadruple tandem mobile exercise bike. Taking four exercise machines that were never meant to move and making them into a vehicle was no easy task.
The exercise bikes had to be completely disassembled and retrofitted with bicycle sprockets to replace their flywheels. The machines were then welded together and attached to a motorcycle front end, while the back end was modified to have two wheels, for stability.
The four bikes were then connected with chains by veteran bike mechanic Jacobo Salazar Jr. of Kickstand Bicycles, whose technical expertise was invaluable to the team. Instead of spinning their individual flywheels, the exercise bikes will collectively spin one large gear that is attached to the two back wheels, causing the vehicle to move.
Danny explains his thought process further, saying, “I used to make things like crazy cars, just for the sake of making them, to freak people out and delight them. I made quite a few of these things, but never really made them public. I did it just for the sake of making something different, making cool weaponry, a Mad Max style winch truck, all for my own personal amusement.”
He continues, “Now I am doing things with a purpose, to help small business, and to raise money for charity. We are getting support from the community, so that we can give back at the same time as having fun. All of this is sponsored by locals, to show what small businesses from Rossville and Chattanooga can achieve together.”
To participate in the Ride-A-Thon, make a pledge, volunteer, donate, or sponsor the Mobile Gym, call Danny Reyes at (423) 704-0589 or Maria Zare at (865) 306-1306, shoot an email to mobilegym2017@gmail.com, visit them on Facebook @mobilegymrideathon, or head over to playingtolive.org