Man Who Bikes 8 Miles to Work Receives Upgraded Bicycle as a Gift

A man who bikes eight miles to work without a helmet and lights received an upgraded bicycle as a gift from his friends for the holidays.

Kenny Randolph can often be found biking from Ankeny, Iowa, to Des Moines, Iowa, to get to work, where he clocks in 12 hours for his shift, KCCI reported.

“I commute up 2nd Avenue in the morning, and it’s dark. I noticed often that Kenny was riding alongside the road with no helmet, and the lights weren’t on,” said Erin Van Dorn, as she stood next to her husband, Eric, at Bike World. “We bike, and so we understand safety. It concerned me.”

Van Dorn first spoke with Randolph in September when she and her friends purchased Randolph some protective gear.

In the following months, she and her husband befriended Randolph. The couple brought him to a bicycle shop in November and again the day after Christmas.

Randolph thought he was joining his friends at the store the day after Christmas. While at the shop, he took one out for a test ride. Little did he know that it would soon be his.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Randolph said. “I didn’t think anybody would do this for me.”

This is not the only instance where the community has stepped in to replace a bicycle. In November 2019, neighbors in Ohio stepped up to replace an autistic man’s bicycle after it was stolen.

And in April 2020, community members in San Francisco, California, also rallied around a nurse, helping to replace her bike, which was also stolen.