By Jeff Feathers
Marty Seagraves is both a motorcycle enthusiast and the parent of a child with autism. In early 2008, he conceived of a way to spread awareness about the neurological disorder which affects one in 150 children here in the U.S.on two wheels. Its a method of which his son, Anthony (nicknamed AJ), who also loves anything with motors, surely approves, and with help from plenty of companies and friends, Marty built the Autism Cycle as a tribute to AJ and to kids similarly affected. Beginning with the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, the Autism Cycle has been visiting racetracks and events to raise money, spread awareness, and hand out information.
RRX: What inspired you to create the Autism Awareness motorcycle?
Marty Seagraves: Back in February, I was watching a NASCAR race and I saw the Autism Speaks puzzle piece on one of the cars, so I did some research on it in the motorcycle world. Being in northern California, I was trying to see how many events they had and all I kept coming up with was events in Florida or down South, not a whole lot going on in the Midwest. This saddened me because my son Anthony was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and he loves cars and motorcycles. So the idea came to mind to raise awareness with my Honda 2004 CBR1000RRit became the Autism Cycle. I just decided to invade the motorcycle world with an autism bike built specifically to target that area.
I sent out a mass email and that's how we ended up with the Autism Cycle parts list with everybody that's on it. It started out with Alfred Kobacker of OnCycles.com, he was the first guy who got back to me because his daughter is autistic also. He supplied us with the wheels, the shock, exhaust, triple clamp. He just went crazy for us. That's why we ended up with his daughters name and my sons name in the heart on the tail section, since he was the first one who really wanted to personalize it. Also, Scott Hultquist from Riff Raff Customs is a personal friend of mine, and he told me I could have whatever I needed. Me and Scott painted it together. He did all spraying, and I did all the layout and artwork.. Both of us combined did the whole thing.
Then on the autism side of things we have teamed up with organizations like Generation Rescue, which is Jenny McCarthys organization, the Lovaas Institute, Foggyrock, and Unlocking Autism. We have Treating Autism in the U.K. because their numbers are way higher than what we have diagnosed here in the United States; they're one child in ninety, whereas were one in 150, but the numbers are always changing. Then we have Autism.org, which is an autism collaboration and any of the heavy hitters in autism are involved with them. Then there's Autism Speaks, as well.
RRX: How are you using the bike to spread your message?
Marty Seagraves: We've been taking it to events since the MotoGP event at Laguna Seca in July. That was our first event, and we've done everything from car shows to autism walks [since]. We just teamed up with Altamont Raceway here in Tracy, California, so we can take it to events there also. Liberty Mutual Insurance is also a part of the Autism Cycle, and what happens is we give people an eight-by-ten of their kids or them sitting on the bike, and they donate five dollars to Autism Speaks for every insurance quote that we send them. As of right now we've almost raised a thousand dollars doing that. We've had probably 750 kids sitting on that thing, smiling from ear to ear. Were doing another autism walk the weekend of the eighteenth of October, which would be the last one for the year. We've done import car shows, custom hot rod shows all over the place really, just trying to open peoples eyes.
RRX: Is the bike going to be raffled off or sold eventually?
Marty Seagraves: It can eventually, but my main goal is trying to get a few of the corporations involved, and seeing if they can donate one so we can paint it up and then give it back to them and let them auction it off to raise money. I didnt want the bike to end up in someone's garage and not do what its intended to do. I thought about it, and [if it] ended up in someone's throne room or garage, the publicity would stop right there.
We started out not knowing anything, and now were actually taking donations for Autism Speaks, and its just been a whole long process. Were learning at every show. I've had post cards made up so we can hand those to people with all the information on it. My main deal was getting people to the websites, but there's so much information on those sites. If I can lead them in the right direction because I've had ladies who are totally distraught, with no idea where to go [for information] and what to do with their children. I've been to all the sites and I'm working to get the information into other peoples hands so they can apply it to their life. I just wanted to open peoples eyes a little bit and inspire them to do stuff on their own. I'm just an average guy who happens to have a child with autism.
The main motivation for all this is for the kids. The more I see and the more I'm around it, I know I'm doing the right thing. Until you get involved in it, you don't really realize all that can be done.
