If you go What: Lemonade Run, a sober motorcycle ride to support registering the special needs trike When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday Where: Meet at 908 SW First St., Loveland Cost: $20 entry fee plus cash for lemonade stands Lemonade Run info: bit.ly/2sk1bR7 Special needs trike info: bit.ly/2s8NowY

A Loveland man’s wish to host a good-natured sober motorcycle ride and a Longmont man’s desire to get a special needs trike on the road this summer will intersect on Sunday.

Calvin Keim, of Longmont, cares full time for his 22-year-old son, Calvin Keim II. To avoid confusion, his son goes by either Little Calvin or LC for short, Keim said.

Little Calvin has a genetic condition called Fragile X syndrome that causes disabilities similar to someone on the autism spectrum.

Mentally, Keim said LC is about 12 years old. Keim and LC are together nearly all the time and Keim does odd jobs around the community to support them.

Special needs trike

It took him 11 years, but Keim decided to build a modified motorcycle so he and LC could ride together.

“He has a balance problem, which is why I started to make the special needs trike. He’s kind of wobbly on his feet but I love to ride motorcycles, so I can’t put him on the backseat because if I’m going down the road at 60 miles per hour and he loses balance, we’re eating it,” Keim said. “So I said, ‘Well, let’s look into a sidecar maybe,’ and then, ‘Let’s build a trike.'”

Keim bought an old Volkswagen for $600 and started slowly building the trike, repurposing the vehicle and using donated parts.

“She was built by people donating this part here and that part there and that’s why it took 11 years,” Keim said. “There’s almost 3,000 hours of bodywork in it and if I needed some Bondo (automotive body filler) or some sandpaper or something, I would have to wait three or four months before I could afford to go pick up some sandpaper and then I’d get back to work on it.”

Keim said that the “wind therapy” that motorcycle enthusiasts swear by really seems to help people with special needs such as LC.

“I want them to have the chance to experience the wind in their face and the freedom that the biker community loves so much and cherishes,” Keim said. “You put kids on that bike who can’t sit still and you go down the street and the wind goes over their skin and they relax for 20, 30, 40 minutes and they sit back and enjoy it.”

The problem, however, with the trike is that Keim needs $2,000 to make it street legal for this summer. When he tried to register the trike for license plates, the state patrol staffer wrote that he used the rear of a Volkswagen but didn’t note that the engine and the transmission also came from a Volkswagen, Keim said.

As a result, Keim didn’t have a receipt for the engine and transmission to show the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. Because the trike has been appraised at $10,000, Keim must post a $2,000 security bond for the engine and transmission before he can get plates.

Keim was able to get paper tags last summer and he and his son rode about 2,500 miles.

“Oh, it never leaves the driveway without him in the backseat. We are almost completely inseparable,” Keim said.

Another biker is holding a ride this weekend to help Keim raise the money.

Lemonade Run

Logan Derrington, of Loveland, started doing Lemonade Runs with other bikers last year as a way to raise money for good causes and convince kids that bikers are not always big, scary and dangerous.

Derrington said he really wanted a sober ride because he had a friend die after he’d been drinking and riding his motorcycle.

“I do a lot of charity rides and a lot of them are poker runs or bar runs and they say that they help kids, but all you’re doing is going to bars and drinking and I don’t see how that supports kids or anything else,” he said. “One day I was riding and my girlfriend was on the back of the bike and we saw a lemonade stand run by kids and we pulled up and the kids were kind of scared … and it was a lightbulb moment for me.”

Derrington asks for parents to tell him where their kids are holding lemonade stands around the Loveland area — Longmont, Mead, Johnstown and as far up as Fort Collins.

Bikers pay $20 to enter the run and Derrington maps the route. The entry fee goes to a good cause and along the way, little lemonade entrepreneurs earn some money and learn to be more aware of motorcycles on the road.

“If we can get the kids to start watching for bikes on the road then when they’re older, they’re more alert and they know that they don’t have to be scared of bikers because we’re the first ones to help them out,” Derrington said. “I wear my mohawk and I have all my biker gear on so I’m not trying to look like a nice guy, sorry to say. The kids are just wide-eyed when we show up and some kids even put their hair in a mohawk afterwards and that’s just an honor.”

By the end of the runs, Derrington said the bikers are pretty done with lemonade. And, of course, the necessary pit stops are factored in. Derrington said he hopes that others take his idea and spread it farther than just the Loveland area.

“I hope that it goes everywhere,” he said. “If someone wants to set up one farther south, then all you have to do is get all your friends involved and set up a Facebook page. I hope it takes off and goes even into different states.”

Derrington and Keim met at a ride and the Lemonade Run on Sunday will go toward getting the special needs trike on the road.

As for Keim and LC? They’ll be in Grand Junction due to a previous commitment. Little Calvin will be competing in the Colorado Summer Special Olympics in swimming.

“He’ll be in the opening ceremonies and possibly he might be one of the torch carriers,” Keim said. “On Sunday morning, he’ll be swimming for gold medals. We’ve got 25 of them on the shelf already so I’m hoping we bring home some more.”

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci