BELTON, Mo. — Crushing gravel and clinging to cliffs on mountain bikes is what Zak Elgin and his crew like to do.
But Elgin says he hasn’t always had the easiest of roads under his tires.
“It frustrates me cause my buddies will get out there flying around, and I’ll reach down and switch this and think, 'Maybe I’ll catch up,'” he said.
Elgin says it’s a shock absorption problem. Using a manual switch on his prosthetic leg, it can be dangerous to adjust manually to challenging terrain on the fly.
Recently a solution was created in the hallways of Belton High School by two seniors who aspire to be future engineers.
“He was the cool guy with the scooter that could ignore the speed limit in the hallways,” said William Duffelmeyer, Belton High senior.
An accident nearly four years ago caused Elgin to need prosthetics.
“Next thing I know, bam, I’m laying in the bed of the truck," Elgin said. "I opened the tailgate with my forehead and I looked down and thought, 'That’s not a good thing.'"
He tells his students his leg hasn’t gotten in the way of finding adventure.
“I’ve always thought prosthetics are really cool,” said Robert Ricketts, another senior at Belton High.
The students spent a full school year planning, coding, 3D printing and switching, and eventually made an attachment to help switch and absorb tough terrain, controlled by Bluetooth and the press of a button locked onto handlebars.
“Thank God this is working, it was really stressful to work on it, but having a project you’ve worked on for so long — it’s like a weight lifted,” Ricketts said.
Duffelmeyer says the project is unique.
“This is the only thing made for this in existence in this moment,” Duffelmeyer said. “Although this is fairly simple, it’s just that nobodies paid attention to something like this.”
Nick Civitello, an engineering teacher at Belton High School, was there for the whole process.
“They came in every day to work toward their goal,” Civitello said. “I hope they become real engineers.”
Civitello says the pair solved a real problem.
“I’ve been a seated rider, I don’t stand up — this prosthetic has given me that opportunity,” he said. “It’s hard to walk, I earn sores on the bottom of my limb, there are things that are just painful, and some of the technology, just like these guys create for me, helped me a lot.”
Ricketts wants to continue creating projects that make a difference.
“I want to develop prosthetics, I want to see a world where everyone has robotic limbs that are better than the ones you are born with," he said.
The work of Duffelmeyer and Ricketts won them a coveted innovator award at KC Stem Alliance, Project Lead the Way.
Both students received $100 and serious gratitude from Elgin.
Duffelmeyer and Ricketts tell KSHB 41 they plan to go to Metropolitan Community College for two years through the A+ program before going on to the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
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