One Sunday afternoon watching a Nascar race with my son I noticed the puzzle pieces on the racecars and heard the commentators talk about the support they are giving to Autism Speaks. I thought to myself how cool is this and wondered if there was any support in the motorcycle world. Come to find out there was one event for 2008.

This saddened me because my Son Anthony was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two and he loves cars and motorcycles.

So the idea came to mind to raise awareness with my Honda 2004 CBR1000RR. It became the Autism Cycle. I then went back to the computer and started sending out emails to major motorcycle corporations asking for help with my build. I was striving to have puzzle pieces on all the motorcycles in the race at Moto GP.

The hidden puzzle pieces represent that there is no cure for Autism. Currently, 1 of 150 kids has Autism. These are kids that have been seen by a doctor, what about the kids that haven’t? This is why I have hidden the puzzle pieces within the paint job.

Then one day I received an email from Alfred Kobacker President of OnCycles with some fantastic news. His company wanted to get onboard and help. He felt that he had a personal connection with this build since his daughter also has Autism. So we gave it a number, which is 228.This is a combination of Miriam and Anthony’s birthday.

We then formed the Autism Cycle support team.

Alpinestars Stephanie Finkel jumped on board. Scott Hultquist of Riff Raff Customs has offered his painting skills to bring the puzzle pieces to life. Rub It Enterprises made the stencils for the paint. Brembo’s Jack Gerken wanted to get involved and decided to do the braking. Reza Gohary of Pro Fiberglass made a custom rear fender and heat shield. Jeff Hubert from E.M.A. is helping with what is needed to complete the project. Fastline Cycles handled the dyno tuning and mapping. Supporting us also is Army National Guard, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Road Racer X, and O.D.C.

Autism sites include: Autism Research Institute, Autism Society of America, National Autism Association, Autism Speaks, Treating Autism, Unlocking Autism, Lovaas Institute, Foggyrock, and Generation Rescue. After talking with them, they all said the same thing. There is not enough awareness out there, so anything anyone can do helps support the cause. I would like to thank everyone involved. Without them it would just be a vision.