Jeremy McGee is a runner. He likes to imagine running barefoot through the jungle. But since a 2001 motorcycle crash left him paralyzed, McGhee has ridden a three-wheeled, hand-cranked mountain bike. “This bike is how I run now,” he says.
When McGhee started riding in 2007, he found that gates, cattle guards, or surprise rock gardens could make it impossible for him to finish a ride. “I don’t have the luxury of being able to walk myself out if something happens.”
Together with the database Trailforks, McGhee set out to make mountain biking more accessible for adaptive riders, by developing a rating system for trails. He hopes that the combination of the ratings and a collection of YouTube videos he’s compiling will help more adaptive riders get rolling, on more adventurous routes. “I don’t want to do an out-and-back fire road ride,” he says. “I want to get rowdy.”