Riding to raise money

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH--Their bicycle is built for two, but they ride for

three.

For the seventh time Saturday, Newport Coast residents Terri and Jim

Koberstein boarded their tandem bike in the annual MS 150 Bay to Bay Bike

Tour.

The 100- and 150-mile bike ride is a fund-raiser for multiple

sclerosis sufferers like Terri’s father, Ted Gaydon. And though he’s too

weak to participate in any bike rides, he’s always with Terri and Jim in

spirit. In fact, a whole team of workers from Terri’s company,

PacifiCare, call themselves Team Ted in honor of the 65-year-old Fresno

resident.

“It’s a fun ride,” Terri Koberstein said. “It’s not a race and because

it’s up the coast, it’s beautiful scenery all the way. And you’re doing

something important.”

The more than 1,200 riders started out from the Newport Dunes between

7:30 and 9 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s exciting to see all the enthusiasm and to see so many people

concerned about the issue of multiple sclerosis,” said Jim Graves, an

organizer of the event for the Orange County Chapter of the National

Multiple Sclerosis Society.

For most riders, it’s a 100-mile trip. But more energetic cyclists

opted for the 150-mile course designed to get them to the same place

about the same time as riders on the shorter tour.

By evening, all were scheduled to arrive in Carlsbad. There,

Koberstein said, is one of her favorite parts of the tour: a luau for the

riders that includes live music and all the food they can eat after a day

of strenuous cycling.

“You can eat all you want without worrying about gaining weight,” she

said.

Then, first thing Sunday morning, the riders will take off for their

ultimate destination: San Diego’s Mission Bay district. The reward that

awaits them there may be the greatest of all; they’ll get an

air-conditioned ride home in chartered coaches.

Last year, the event raised $620,000 to fight the debilitating

disease. Multiple sclerosis is the most common neurological disease in

young adults. It attacks the brain and central nervous system causing

serious symptoms like paralysis and blindness. In Southern California,

about 16,000 people have the disease.