After 5: Business Cycles: Riders take off for a break from the office

Each started riding bicycles for fitness and stuck with it because they say it’s easy on their joints and affords them time outside.

Each rides several times a week for fun.

And each has parlayed their passion into charitable dollars, riding at least 14 years apiece in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s annual bike ride.

Herschend, O’Reilly and Adib-Yazdi are examples of businesspeople who find their escape on two wheels.

“I’d much rather be outside than inside,” says O’Reilly, pictured at left, who returned in July from a three-month, cross-country bike ride dubbed “Larry Rides America” that raised about a combined $200,000 for Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks and Lance Armstrong Foundation.

O’Reilly’s odyssey took him 4,400 miles from Astoria, Ore., to Yorktown, Va., through 10 states and over 14 mountain ranges.

“It was just gorgeous,” says O’Reilly, who retired a few years ago after serving as chief operating officer for 30 years at O’Reilly Automotive.

After spending months on a bike, O’Reilly only needed a 10-day break before he was itching to go out again. As long as the weather allows, O’Reilly, at left, rides four or five times a week for about three hours a pop, usually in the early morning.

Like O’Reilly, Herschend has been a cyclist for about 20 years, and he also has raised substantial charitable dollars through riding.

Herschend – co-founder of Herschend Family Entertainment Corp., which owns and operates Silver Dollar City, White Water and 15 other properties in seven states – has raised more than $1 million for the MS Society through 17 consecutive years of riding in the MS Bike Ride.

While Herschend didn’t ride in this year’s MS Bike Ride – a 150-mile roundtrip trek Sept. 15–16 between Willard and Joplin – his daughter, Anne Ficarra, rode in his place and raised about $50,000.

Adib-Yazdi, an architect with Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, rode in this year’s MS Bike Ride and raised about $2,000. He’s been a cyclist for 15 years and has participated in every MS Bike Ride since 1993.

“That particular event pulled me into being a little more than just (someone who rides) around the block,” says Adib-Yazdi, who also teaches a spin class at Ozark Fitness Center’s south location, competes in mountain bike races and rents bikes to explore new terrain while traveling in places such as Arizona and Nevada.

Equipment has certainly improved since these men first started pedaling. Herschend says his first bike had three gears and weighed more than 40 pounds. His current model has 27 gears and weighs about three pounds.

Herschend says the difference between his steel-frame bike of 18 years ago and his carbon fiber-frame bike today is “a little like taking a blimp into aerial combat with a navy fighter plane.”

Meanwhile, O’Reilly calls himself a “bike-a-holic.” He owns several road and mountain bikes, some stationed in other parts of the country, including one at his winter home in Florida.

While equipment has improved, the outdoor elements haven’t changed. As Herschend puts it, “There are only three enemies (to cyclists): heat, wind and your rear end. If you’re in any kind of condition, your heart and your lungs will take you.”

Want More Information?

Try these resources:

Springbike Bicycle Club – Members participate in club-sponsored rides and events. Visit www.springbike.org

City of Springfield – The city offers bike routes and a downloadable map of those routes. Visit www.ci.springfield.mo.us/transportation/bike_routes.html

Ozark Greenways – Biking is allowed on all greenway trails. Visit www.ozarkgreenways.org.[[In-content Ad]]