Freedom machines: Winnipegger brings the joy of riding a bike to disabled kids

For nearly 20 years, David Kron has been helping kids with disabilities experience a right of passage many take for granted: riding a bike.

Kron has helped arrange adaptivebicycles for kids in different capacities over the years,first as a sales rep for Freedom Concepts, a Winnipeg firm that makesthe customized bikes, and now as the executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba.

Kron, who hascerebral palsy himself, knows the freedom a bike bestows on a physically challenged child:He rode a girl's bike with training wheels to help him get around when he was a kid.

However, getting the bike to the kids can be a long process. They can cost thousands of dollars to construct, which usually requires a fundraising effort, and it can take time to design and build a bike to the child's specific needs.

Kron says parents and therapists usually break down in tears when he hands one of the freedom machines over to the childbut not from the child.

"The kids are happy. They just want to get on and get going," he said, adding he sometimes cries a bit himself..

Kronrecalls the time he got a call from a parent telling him their child had fallen off one of the adaptive bikes they got through him.

He says he immediately panicked, but then quickly realized the parent wasn't angry at all.

"The parent was so happy that the child broke his arm because it was a normal thing to do. The child was so passive in his whole lifestyle, sitting in his wheelchair, not being able to move on his own," Kron said. "And he phoned me to thank me for giving his child an opportunity to break his arm."

Listen to Kron'sfull interview here:

Waverley Leduc rides an adaptive bike.

Diagnosed with Rettsyndrome, the 13-year-old girl has very low muscle tone throughout her body and struggles to speak.

Her father, Jamie, says the adaptive bike allows her to exercise like any other kid.

"There's a lot of little things that people may take for granted, like riding a bike," he said. "But seeing her get onto a bike, and taking off and getting excited and really picking up momentum, it's really cool."

Kron is currently working with Freedom Concepts on a Winnipeg Jets-themed bike for another teen.

They're hoping to have that one completed in August.