Isaac and Alexis Liggett enjoy their family bicycle rides with their daughter, and their son, AJ. Because AJ has complex medical needs, the Liggetts travel with multiple medical bags wherever they go. Initially, they used a tricycle with a child seat for their bike rides with AJ, but he soon began to outgrow the child seat, so the Liggetts set out create a bicycle sidecar that could not only accommodate AJ and his medical bags, but his wheelchair as well.
Through their business, Liggett Electrical Services LLC, the Liggetts procured bicycle frames and collaborated with head welding instructor Bobby Alvarado from Arizona Western Entrepreneurial College and his Welding Design & Fabrication class to create a custom bicycle sidecar for their son AJ.
After the well-received success of the AJ's adaptive bicycle, the Liggetts and Arizona Western College collaborated again, this time to construct a custom bicycle for Mason Drake, a teenage friend of the Liggetts who also uses a wheelchair.
During construction of the Mason's bicycle, the Liggett’s also coordinated with Micargi Bicycles, Psycho Sammi Cyclery, One Above Cruisers, and the Yuma Region Bicycle Coalition, all of whom provided additional bicycle parts or guidance.
Although the student team faced some steep challenges, such as designing the bicycle from scratch without preexisting blueprints or instructions, they pulled together to finish building Mason's bicycle within a college semester. On 13 February, Alexis Liggett and the AWC student welding team presented Mason with his custom bike, complete with personalized graphics.
Listen above to hear from the Liggett family and some of the builders.
