Catching up with X Games Adaptive Sportsman Steve Howe

This month the 3rd annual Increasing Eagle Edge of Summer Race kicked off in Mount Pleasurable, Michigan. Over 20, 000 participants showed up for the three-day event. The particular race consisted of amateur classes, a good ATV quad National, an Adaptive MX class and a $10, 000 purse MX race for the Pros. A few days after the race, we had the chance to sit down with competitor, and SoCal native, Steve Howe, the champion of the Adaptive MX class.

Dirt Rider: Exactly how did you get into riding?

Dorrie Howe: My big brother was 12 years older than me personally and raced Suzuki's. When I was 3 years old, he would let me ride on the front of the gas tank along with him. Just the experience of being able to note that big front fender was some thing attractive to me. I just loved making the bike and riding with him. He would do wheelies with me and it just made me really feel so free. I knew that I had to be a part of the action plus try it myself. One of our problems (because I’m missing my correct hand) in the beginning was trying to figure out methods to put the throttle on the left side and how to hold on. Through a series of various events, we tried putting the leather strap on the right side of the bars and strapping our wrist to it, but when I would wreck it would drag me along with the bike. We quickly learned that was not the most efficient way due to injuries.

DR: Can you explain your condition and how common it is? Were you born this way?

SH: I don’t know statistically speaking but I know from a medical standpoint and being in the medical field there is a medication called Bendectin which was really classified as a Thalidomide. It had been a drug that was responsible for child birth defects. At the time my mother has been relatively sick with Preeclampsia. The girl blood pressure was really high and they had been trying to give her stuff for nausea. They gave her this particular medication that was designed in European countries and brought over to the Declares. She took it and it helped her symptoms, but unknowing with her, this is what happened to me. To be honest, I believe of myself as being lucky. Several kids were born with no hip and legs, no arms, and heart defects. It was just my one hand, I can take it! (laughs) It was known, and later down the road they actually went against the drug company and did file a class action suit, but nothing ever came out of it.

DR: What inspires you to ride motocross?

SH: It’s definitely a hobby the other I enjoy and have a passion to perform, but the other piece is having an opportunity to motivate and inspire individuals that have challenges in their life, that maybe these people feel that they can’t overcome. When someone has a passion for dust bikes and enjoys watching yet feels they can’t do it, I encourage them to come out to the motorsport adaptive race and watch. Often times seeing additional athletes with physical challenges enables them to relate with us on really a personal level. I can tell you that becoming around the guys I race with is truly awesome, we all have the same passion of riding and want to encourage others. I want to be able to allow people to see that there really is no challenges that can stop you from doing things that you want to do in life. I think the only real challenge is mental. People tell themselves they can’t do it, which is really what stops them from pursuing whatever they want to accomplish.

DR: What modifications do you do to your bike?

YOU WILL NEED: I grew up within Las Vegas and had a group of people that started interest in my opportunity to be able to trip. One of them being Carey Hart’s dad, Tom Hart.

He helped with designing the particular throttle on the left side. At the time we were all on two-strokes and we would actually drill into the throttle housing and reroute the wire itself so that when the throttle had been mounted on the left side it could turn the correct way back to accelerate, versus rolling it forward. Later down the road when we started racing four-strokes, it was actually easier to convert the bicycles to a left hand throttle. We would just move the throttle tube to the other side and exchange the push/pull cables around to make it work. A couple years ago I began running a Rekluse clutch as well. The Rekluse allows me to save some energy from using my clutch after i start getting forearm pump. Besides the clutch and left handed accelerator, I do run a little stiffer suspension setting because I like the bicycle to absorb the harder hits plus bigger jumps. Other than that, my bicycle is very standard.

DR: Any closing words and phrases?

SH: I was created without a right hand and had issues my whole life. Early on I found that you could either have the personality in order to sit back and feel sorry for yourself you can also actually get out there and do what you have to do to be successful. Being a registered nurse, how many people have one hand and can start a good IV in the ER and do different procedures. A lot of my instructors said, " I don’t know how you are going to pass or how you’re going to do it. " But where there is a may, there’s a way. You just overcome it and figure it out. I have already been a nurse for 16 years and still continue to ride and race motocross. I have done a lot of things that individuals said I would never be able to perform because of my physical challenge. If someone is born without that personality or mentality that they can overcome, ideally this pushes them over the edge to say wow, I CAN do this.

DR: Any one you would like to thank?

SH: I would like to thank my wife and several kids. RCH racing, Suzuki, Increasing Eagle, Jimmy Johns, Fox, Dunlop, Rekluse, MMR, Works connection, Matrix, Bel-Ray, Moto Sport Adaptive (MSA), Kenny Watson and Justyn Through NFC management.