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OREM, Utah (AP) — If you're out and about in Orem during the first of the month, keep your eyes peeled. Behind the handlebars of a four-wheel bike, 96-year-old Clare Oliphant will be on the road, too.

He'll be dressed in a white shirt and tie and on his way to do his home teaching.

Specific to the LDS Church, home or visiting teaching is a church assignment given to members to serve each other. Usually home teachers visit their home teachees once a month and share a gospel message.

Oliphant and his neighbor, 92-year-old Joel Moss, have been home teaching partners for the past five years or so. Every month, at the beginning of the month, they visit Sterling Bylund, 89, who lives in a small red brick house on Oliphant's street. The three loners, Moss calls them, are all widowers.

Just recently, Oliphant, who uses a walker to get around, started picking Moss up in his custom Rhoades Car, a four-wheel bike that drives like a car. After relinquishing his driver's license last year, Oliphant found a new way to get his job done.

With two side-by-side seats, pedals, brakes and a battery, Oliphant can power the machine with his legs or his fingers. Kept in his garage, he usually backs the bike out onto the street Flintstone style and then switches to battery-operated power.

With a plexiglass wraparound windshield and a basket in the back for his walker, the bike can go up to 20 miles per hour, but Oliphant maxes out at maybe 5.

Equipped with solar panelling, Oliphant could charge the bike's battery with the sun, but opts for plugging it in instead. It has head and tail lights and a combination lock so he can secure it wherever he goes. Two orange pennant safety flags wave as he pedals along.

During an interview with the Daily Herald, Oliphant insisted going for a ride. Scooting along, people in cars waved and a neighbor called out, "That's a pretty good machine you got there."

The bike's fairly new, and people are curious. After parking at Moss' home, a few neighborhood children came over to inspect the machine. Before ringing the bell, Oliphant switched it off and took the keys.

Sitting on a front porch swing, Moss asked Oliphant about his health and we chatted about the weather.

I think (the bike) is a masterpiece... I know he gets a kick out of it. –Joel Moss, 92

When asked about his thoughts on the bike, Moss smiled.

"I think it's a masterpiece," he said, and then jokingly called Oliphant a showoff. "I know he gets a kick out of it."

Back on the bike, the World War II veteran said he doesn't have plans to use the machine for anything other than to complete his home teaching. Occasionally, he might take it to church.

"It's quite nice," he said. "I like to feel the air from the breeze."

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