Pittsburg Morning Sun, Pittsburg, KS

PATRICK’S PEOPLE: Cyclist celebrates turning 65 by doing a fundraising ride
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Frank Briscoe, Nevada, Mo., wanted to do something “huge and extraordinary” to celebrate his upcoming 65th birthday, so he’s riding “Spirit,” a red, white and blue bicycle, across America to raise funds to battle multiple sclerosis.

By NIKKI PATRICK
The Morning Sun
Posted Apr 01, 2011 @ 01:27 AM

PITTSBURG — KS

A 65th birthday is a milestone that should be celebrated. Frank Briscoe thought long and hard about how he would mark this occasion, which is coming up in July.

He decided that he would ride a bicycle across the United States and raise $10,000 to battle multiple sclerosis.

“I didn’t want to do something totally selfish,” Briscoe said in a telephone interview from his Nevada home.

Briscoe operates Frank’s Center, a wholesale billiards/pool business, but he’s also been riding for MS for more than six years now.

“I got into this when I started bike riding, and I wanted to see how far I could ride my bike,” he said. “I found the MS 150 Ride, which was 150 miles, and decided I’d go on that. The first night they had a speaker, a woman who had been nearly blind and in a wheelchair from MS. She was able to walk out on her own, and said the best thing was that she could hold her grandbaby. That touched me very dearly.”

Then something happened nearer to home. “A Nevada woman named Linda Harms died of MS,” Briscoe said. “She was a great lady, very civic minded and very nice to be around. After that, I was hooked.”

He pointed out that there are more than 8,000 MS patients in the Ozark Region served by the MS Society. He has come to know many of them and marvel at their courage in coping with the debilitating disease.

Briscoe trains rigorously, riding his bike when weather permits, or using a spin trainer when it’s bad outdoors.

“My minimum goal is to ride my bike 3,000 miles and do 1,000 miles on the spin trainer,” he said. “I also do some weight training and swimming. But you’d never think I do all that to look at me. One cardiologist told me I was an obese athlete. In biking terms, I’m a Clydesdale.”

But he’s always enjoyed outdoor activities such as hiking and backpacking, caving, rappelling, whitewater rafting and canoeing.

“I wondered how I could continue to enjoy outdoor sport, exercise my body and soul and still be able to get out of bed the next morning,” Briscoe said. “I found it in biking.”

He was active in Scouting, both as a Boy Scout and a Scout master, and it was back then that the seed was planted for his upcoming cross-country adventure. Briscoe read a series of articles in “Boys Life Magazine” about a Scout he rode his bike across America, and vowed that he would do it someday.

“I never expected it would take me more than 50 years, but this is the right time and for all of the right reasons,” he said.

Briscoe will leave on his journey June 1 and, over the next four months, bike more than 6,000 miles across 16 states from Washington State to Key West, Fla. He and the group “Bike the US for MS” are scheduled to spend the night in Pittsburg on June 26.

In honor of the occasion, Briscoe has painted the bike he’s using red, white and blue. Though he has never named any of his other bikes, he has decided to call this one “Spirit.”

He has established a web site, “Old Guy on a Bicycle,” for those who want to follow his journey and make donations. Donations may also be mailed to “Bike the US for MS,” cyclist: Frank Briscoe, 1302 Gladewood Dr., Blacksburg, Va. He’s also accepting some speaking invitations from clubs and organizations in exchange for donations to battle MS.

“Just as we beat polio back in the 1950s,” Briscoe said, “I think MS can be beaten.”

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