Handicapped-accessible R6 and paralyzed motorcyclist

First ride-First Ride
Second ride-Second ***
Mounting by myself-Mounting by myself

My name is Kristofer Reckner.  I am a veteran, now 26 years old and am a T6/T7 paraplegic, paralyzed from my chest down. I was injured on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008 when a driver merged into me on my other motorcycle without looking or signaling on the highway, and slid headfirst into the guardrail on my back. After 8 months in the hospital, 3 months in a HALO, 2 rods and 12 screws in my back and a plate with 2 screws in my arm, I vowed that I would someday ride again and never lost my focus. Living with disability as my only income and without the support of any family, and even before buying a new vehicle, I decided to save the money to buy a new motorcycle and then found a machinist to modify it with a landing gear type setup that goes up and down at the push of a button, and has electronic shifter and rear thumb brake. Before my mother passed away when I was 5, and my father when I was 20, my parents were both trophy Trials motorcycle riders back in the 70's and early 80's, my father was a 1%er biker and was actually a founding member of the Grim Reapers motorcycle club out of Troy, NY which was eventually rolled into the Hell's Angels back around the time the FBI began to heavily investigate biker gangs across the country. I put 20,000 miles on my GSXR sportbike in two and a half seasons, and after my father passed away I rode his Yamaha V-Star cruiser 2,600 miles from his house in Idaho to my house in upstate New York in 3 days. That cruiser is actually at the garage, hopefully waiting to be modified.  I feel like riding really has always been so much a part of my blood and my life, that part of this whole project was for them. The other half was for all the haters that said I wouldn't, couldn't or shouldn't ride again  I also have my father 1974 Yamaha TY250 Trials bike tat I would like to restore.  That was actually how I learned to ride.  I couldnt stand riding on the powerlines as a kid, still would rather do technical riding any day rather than just twist the throttle and get stuck in the mud, lol.  We used to have a mantle over the fireplace that was 20 feet long and full of trophies from them both.  Even though I will miss that kind of riding, it means the WORLD to me to still have his bike.  I used to ride a Honda TL125 that belonged to my mother(and loved, like I said dry creek beds and stone walls were my cup of tea and specialty, not racing down the powerlines).  I hope to someday bit by bit restore it, which really wont take too much.  Ive even been to Sturgis when I was 15 he and ai took a vacation out there, and I had an absolute blast!  I wish it wasnt such a haul from NY, but it would be amazing to go again someday.