Auburn alumnus Gary Godfrey wanted to “feel the wind in his face” as he participated in the 12th annual Bo Bikes in Auburn last Saturday, April 22. The former Auburn basketball player enjoyed riding a bike and many other activities before being diagnosed with ALS in 2019, and now he lives by the motto “Make today your best day.” Thanks to a team of Auburn engineering students, including three 2019 Athens High School graduates, he was able able to complete the 20-mile charity bike ride.

Senior Auburn Engineering students and Athens High grads Hampton Key, James Clem, and Chandler Leopard worked alongside Grady Hall, of Auburn, and Conor Henderson, of Atlanta, to design and build Godfrey’s bike for their senior project. Also lending a hand was 2020 Athens High School grad Guy Greenhaw, a junior at Auburn, who did the welding for the project.

“One of our senior design projects was the Gary Godfrey ALS bike. He played basketball here with Charles Barkley. He and his wife are both just very connected to all things Auburn,” Key said. “A year or so ago, he became completely immobilized except for movement in his eyes and cheeks.”

James Clem had met Gary Godfrey before his ALS advanced, and the project was a bit personal.

“All of us had a tie with him beforehand. Myself and Conor Henderson are in the same fraternity as Gary was back in the ‘80’s. I actually got to meet him four years ago when he spoke to our pledge class. I got to see the effects over the last few years,” Clem said.

Designing a bike for Godfrey was challenging, as they were tasked to improve on the design of last year’s bike. During last year’s race the bike was a bumpy ride; the wheels needed improvement; and there was no way to communicate with Godfrey.

Key said, “He wanted it to go faster, which means he wanted it to weigh less. We originally thought we would have to implement something onto that original bike design, but we were told they wanted us to design a completely new bike to fix these issues.”

According to Key, the project got off to a slow start, but the five guys were able to design a new frame that was significantly lighter and added suspension. They found appropriate wheels and created other features that would make the bike race ready.

Clem’s father owns Clem Tires in Athens. James had worked there while growing up in Athens, and the experience was beneficial.

“I was just doing work because I was told to do so for good experience. The past four years, I have learned why I was doing some of those things. With this bike, I actually learned things I had worked on as a teenager helped me in designing this stuff and putting it on and making it work,” he said.

When the special steel material to make the bike arrived, the team thought they had help getting the pieces cut to the right lengths and ready to be assembled, and when that fell through, they were concerned.

“That’s when we called our friend Guy Greenhaw. He is, from all accounts, an expert welder. He was able to get it done really well,” Key said.

Greenhaw said, “I’m not even in the school of engineering at all. I am on the other side of campus. I got on the Baja Off-road team last year when I cam down here and started doing the welding for them. They did a bike last year, and I did the welding on that one also. When Dr. Roberts came and asked if I could do some welding for it, I was like, ‘Sure, I don’t mind doing it. I enjoy it.’”

Dr. Roberts then explained that the bike was being made for a person with ALS. Greenhaw’s grandmother passed away from ALS and that made him even more willing to help. “It was a no-brainer,” he said.

Once the bike was built, they still had to address one of their most challenging issues — steering. After running out of ideas and a couple of “all nighters,” the team implemented a suggestion from a friend.

“We tried his idea, and it worked great. As a matter of fact, it worked too great. The steering canal can go too far, you can turn too much and your wheel would get locked. It would be completely horizontal. That’s one of the quick fixes we had to make,” Key said.

Race day was the real test, and one of the drivers was able to reach a max speed of 30 mph on one downhill stretch, prior to completing the 20-mile race. The team was pleased as Key said that Godfrey loved to go fast.

“Gary said the ride was really smooth. It was a lot more comfortable than it had been,” Key said.

Watching the bike they designed cross the finish line was a surreal moment for the team.

Clem said, “It was really great seeing everything together and what we all learned from freshman to senior year. We actually had to apply it. We designed the bike, and it ended up working for Gary, which is all we wanted. We didn’t really care about our grade. We just wanted him to have that experience.”