All it took was one lucky ticket for Giovanni Velez of Lakewood, New Jersey, to win this year’s Ride for Kids/Cycle World project Honda CBR1000RR. Valez purchased a single ticket at the New York International Motorcycle Show back in December, and he was lucky enough to have that ticket randomly drawn from more than 20,000 entries this past May, just two days shy of his 21st birthday.
“I have my motorcycle permit, but I’ve never had a bike before,” said an ecstatic Velez. “I decided to buy a ticket to help out the charity. This is too good to be true!”
The stock CBR1000RR was donated by American Honda and then handed over to Gregg DesJardins at Gregg’s Customs for its makeover. DesJardins named the bike Catalyst and received support for the build from Sport Chrome, Performance Machine, Dunlop, LeoVince, Drive Systems USA, Kyle Racing, Galfer, Corbin, EMI Group and Colorzone Designs.
Catalyst raised more than $53,000 to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) this year, with the Cycle World custom-bike program generating more than $612,000 in donations since its inception in 2000.
For more info, visit www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids.
