Blind and sighted on bicycles built for two
Members of CanVelo, an Israeli organization for the visually impaired, cycle into a new adventure
Nine visually challenged bikers maneuvering a difficult ropes course, whitewater rafting and off-road cycling daily through the Czech countryside?
What sounds like an implausible undertaking is merely the latest adventure for the group CanVelo. And not just any group. Twenty-four blind and sighted members of its Sharon chapter — equipped with tandem bikes — recently spent a week cycling in the Czech Republic.
“It was the first time that we biked outside of Israel,” said Uri Basha, a leader of the self-funded group of 50. “After we came back, the whole group said that they wanted to do that again.”
CanVelo (a play on the Hebrew words for yes and no) began in 2006 as an organization of the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind. It now has three regional groups in Israel — north, south and Sharon — and one in Manhattan. Members participate weekly in tandem bike rides of 30-40 kilometers in different parts of Israel, with a sighted captain steering in front on each tandem and a blind or visually impaired stoker providing power in the back.
According to Basha, who became blind during the 1982 Lebanon War, tandem bike riding provides fitness, freedom and the chance for the stokers, all of whom live in cities, to “be close to nature.”
They ride in many places not accessible by car. Throughout the trips, the captains constantly describe the surroundings to the stokers.
“During the trip, the captain gives me eyes — everything that he can describe,” Basha said. “Sometimes we stop the tandem and he says ‘come with me’ and has me feel.”
While abroad, CanVelo Sharon visited Prague and its Jewish Quarter, and enjoyed river rafting and a ropes course.
“There were people on the ropes course who looked at it as analogous with their life, and really having no choice but to go forward,” said Ken Milman, a captain. “Though some of the sighted people didn’t want to do it because they were afraid.”
Sion High School in Hradec Kralove hosted the group. There, members met Israeli ambassador to the Czech Republic Gary Koren, toured Jewish cemeteries and Hradec Kralove’s synagogue, and visited a memorial plaque in honor of Israeli pilots trained in Czech airports who later fought in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

“I don’t think most of the blind people think they’re handicapped in any way,” Milman said. “They try to make that known. They try to function and have normal lives. It’s been such an amazing experience to be part of this group.”
In light of the week’s success, Basha said he and the group are already considering plans for another trip abroad next year.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel