Matthew Barbaccia clicks on an arrow that leads him a few more feet down the road on Google Street view. He’s been doing this for months, visually measuring the sides of the road, calculating incline and looking at traffic.

Every few minutes he stops, decides the traffic and road shoulders aren’t good and reroutes. He’s a self-described “data-obsessive engineer” and for his 4,000-mile charitable bike ride across the United States, every step is analyzed. Monday, he finally leaves.

Barbaccia graduated from Syracuse University in December with a degree in biomedical engineering and was a former club lacrosse player. By that time, the 23-year-old had a job lined up with Teach for America in Hawaii starting in June. That left just under half a year for him to fill.

“I began to ask, ‘What am I going to do with five months?’” Barbaccia said.

After stumbling on a website called “Bike the US for MS,” an organization that fundraises for Multiple sclerosis through bicycle touring, Barbaccia decided to take their concept and make it his own. He set out to fundraise for a cause close to his family: Parkinson’s disease research.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder caused by the malfunction and death of brain cells which eventually results in loss of motor function and severe cognitive problems, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation website. Barbaccia’s uncle had been the director of music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooklyn before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Diseases at age 42, and his grandfather died from the disease in 2002.

Barbaccia affiliated himself with Team Fox, a fundraising program at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. His goal has been to raise $50,000 for Parkinson’s disease research, with his cross-country ride as the main vehicle in this campaign.

“I decided to take action instead of settling with the fact that I’m not going to find the cure to Parkinson’s myself,” Barbaccia said.

He minimizes Google Maps and drags over an Excel spreadsheet with contacts on it. He’s sitting at a folding table in his brother’s bedroom in Pittsford, New York, just outside of Rochester. Preparing for this trip has become a full-time job. He begins each day training on a stationary bicycle at the YMCA. The rest of the day, he typically contacts the media, sets up meet-and-greets in cities he will be visiting and fills out a chart with places to stay each night.

Courtesy of Matthew Barbaccia

At the foot of the bed is a pile of camping gear, a second desk in the corner holds stacks of notes from conversations with veteran cross-country cyclists. Barbaccia, who has never done a bicycle tour before, values what he’s learned from these experts.

“Believe it or not, but what most people tell me to have is bear mace,” Barbaccia said. “You run into Rottweilers, German shepherds and big hounds that will just chase after you because you are moving.”

Barbaccia adds that people have told him they get more flat tires in Florida, where regulations on 18-wheelers are minimal — worn tires leave behind metal debris. He’s been advised to bring extra food and water for the desert. His parents worry about distracted drivers and Barbaccia himself has concerns that his route, which starts in Atlantic Beach, Florida, and ends in Sacramento, California, will take him straight through Tornado Alley during tornado season.

Still, the cyclists he has spoken with think he’ll be fine. Problem solving is one of the aspects of the trip Barbaccia is most looking forward to.

“I’m not really the go-getting type that will take on the problem by myself,” Barbaccia said. “This is an opportunity to go out there and come across issues and fix them on my own.”

The mouse hovers over Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud’s name on a contact sheet. While still at SU, Barbaccia explains, he ran into Syverud while he was walking his dog.

As he often does to people he’s just meeting, Barbaccia told the chancellor about his trip and his goal. The chancellor was sympathetic to Barbaccia’s cause and wrote down his personal phone number on a note card for him.

“He said, ‘If you have any issues or are stuck on a road somewhere give me a call.’” Barbaccia said. “I was so shocked.”

Since then, Barbaccia has had positive experience after positive experience meeting people. Everyone, it seems, wants to help in some way. So far, he’s raised just under $9,000 dollars with Team Fox and has found event organizers in several of the major cities he’s pedaling through.

Downstairs from his makeshift office, standing by the front door in middle of the foyer, is Barbaccia’s bike, a custom fitted Trek 520 touring bicycle. Surrounding it are 45-pounds of gym weights Barbaccia uses when training to account for the drone, camera, and laptop he plans on taking with him to update his website and social media accounts.

The bike is shiny, dark gray and outfitted with new puncture-resistant tires, disc brakes, a new cellphone holder, new frame bag and new leather seat. The only items that are a little dirty older than Barbaccia’s other equipment are his gear bags, called panniers, used by both his dad and his uncle, who developed Parkinson’s 13 years ago. Those items are more than three decades old.

It took special hardware to attach them to Barbaccia’s new bike, but carrying them along allows him to travel with a memento of his inspiration.

“It’s a cool continuity,” said Barbaccia’s dad, John, who is also a biker. “He’s also using the same model of seat I used in Europe.”

Monday, Barbaccia will dip his back tire in the Atlantic Ocean and begin a three-month trip across the southern United States. He will pass through the crowded highways of Florida, through the windy plains of Texas, over the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and through the desert in Nevada. Once he reaches Sacramento, California, Barbaccia will dip his front tire in the Pacific Ocean to complete his trip.

Along the way, Barbaccia will continue to do outreach at his stops. A map on his website, ride4parkinsons.com, will populate different sections of his route with contributors’ names.

The hard work, Barbaccia said, is over. The rest is just biking.

Published on February 26, 2017 at 9:26 pm

Contact Benjamin: brfarr@syr.edu