Photo by Mike Lamb Pat Schroeder of Canby shows off his 2015 Special trike before the start of the memorial run.

MINNEOTA — When Pat Schroeder is asked about his motor trike, he answers with one piece at a time.

And it all started one day when he devised a plan to “scrounge up” the parts.

The motor came out of 1973 motorhome. The gas tank is from a 2012 Harley. And the radiator is pulled from a 1985 Ford pickup. The transmission is a 1991 van.

‘It’s all homemade,” Schroeder said Saturday standing next to his licensed 2015 Special motor trike waiting for the start of the 19th annual Minneota Memorial Run. The Canby resident’s bike was among 177 bikes that were registered for the run, according to run organizer Eriann Faris.

“It was made out of odds and ends and stuff that I had laying around,” Schroeder said of his trike.

The bike started taking shape in his mind one day when was going to take a 1927 Ford Coupe that was just laying out in the trees on his property to the salvage yard.

“I went, ‘dang, I think I could build something,'” he said. “My wife couldn’t ride a regular motorcycle because she’s got bad hips. I said, ‘If I built a trike, would you ride?’ And she said ‘yes.’ So I started scrounging up for parts. It took me two years. I was driving truck over the road, building in my mind how to do it.

“You wouldn’t believe the visions I had over the years,” Schroeder said. “In December of 2014 I starting putting it together. By the Fourth of July and the fifth of 2015 I had it on the road running.”

Out of pocket, Schroeder said the trike cost him about $3,500 to build. The paint was the most expensive because it had to be custom mixed to get the rainbow pearl on the engine cover.

Like all the other places he traveled to on his trike, his 2015 Special was drawing a lot of attention behind City Hall Bar and Grill Saturday.

“For the past five years, it’s all I’ve been talking about,” Schroeder said.

The Minneota Memorial Run was organized back in 2002 to promote safety and to honor victims of fatal crashes.

“We’ve always taken our proceeds and donate them to a local charity,” Faris said. “Over the last 18 years we donated almost $18,000 for charities. She also said donated funds help cover the costs for cycle training courses and defensive training.