Despite stroke, Palo Alto couple hit the road on a bicycle built for two

By Loretta Green
Mercury News Staff Columnist

"A bicycle built for two'' is the title of an old romantic song, but it also is the subject of endless enjoyment for Paul and Sachiko Berry.

Paul Berry's eyes fill with tears as he recounts the day, three years ago, when he was urgently summoned to the YMCA where his wife had been swimming. He arrived to see the tiny woman prostrate and surrounded by paramedics.

She looked at him and smiled, but half of her face stayed still and solemn. Instantly Paul Berry knew that his then 52-year-old wife had suffered a severe stroke.

The Palo Alto couple enjoyed biking together. Now Sachiko Berry struggled to recover her ability to speak, stand and walk, and it pained him to ride while she tried to exercise on a stationary bike in their garage.

Today that has changed. Though his wife had lost most of the use of her right side, Paul Berry made it a mission to find a way for them to ride together again.

Now on any day, the Berrys can be seen winging free and happy along the Shoreline park paths in Mountain View on a blue tandem bike. It has a recumbent front where she sits and an upright back where he controls pedaling and direction.

Sachiko Berry uses both a hand crank and foot pedals.

Paul Berry, a computer technical writer who decided to retire after his wife's stroke, discovered the tandem idea after talking with Doug Schwandt, a biomedical engineer at the Rehabilitation Research and Development Center at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto.

Nearly 16 years ago, Schwandt had been principal designer of a recumbent front/upright back bike he called the Sunburst that was developed at the VA.

He bicycles and has a master's degree in mechanical engineering design from Stanford University. Before the Sunburst, he had been one of the designers of an arm-powered bicycle intended for people who have lower-limb disability such as paraplegia or amputation.

But Schwandt learned after designing the Sunburst that a man named Jim Weaver had a patent on a very similar bike. He decided to refer people to Weaver.

When Schwandt met the Berrys, he says, "I knew that type of bike would be perfect for them.'' He contacted Weaver and helped Paul Berry find a manufacturer.

It is a hefty investment.

"The bike was more than $3,000, and $4,000 by the time we added on the hand crank. I regard that as a good price for a used car,'' Paul Berry quipped.

After months of shipping delays, the day finally came when Schwandt could come to their home and help them assemble it. Staffers turned out in the VA parking lot to see the Berrys take their first shaky ride together. Sachiko Berry was frightened.

"I was really kind of scared, too,'' said Paul Berry, surrounded in their home by colorful artifacts of their active life full of travel. "I didn't know if I could handle it and I didn't know if I could get Sachiko on it.''

But earlier this week, they demonstrated that biking has become routine. Paul Berry parks near two thick wooden poles and lowers the "landing gear'' -- two long metal poles that function like a kickstand. Sachiko Berry uses the wooden poles to brace herself while climbing into the front seat of the bike. He then affixes several Velcro straps he purchased to strap her right hand and foot onto the pedal and crank so they won't fall off.

For all of their success, Sachiko Berry credits her husband's dedication and patience through a lot of trial and error. Now, they take 10-mile rides.

"He is a very positive person. I saw the design of the bike and I had about 20 reasons why it wouldn't work,'' she said, and they both laughed as they remembered.

Something else may have been working for them as well. Overhead in the dining room hangs a large profusion of colored paper.

When she lay unable to move or speak, in an old Japanese tradition, her sister and two nieces in Tokyo folded 1,000 origami cranes and traveled to her bedside.

Contact Loretta Green at 650/688-7565, or 650/688-7555 (fax).

Article on SJ Mercury News website