A Look At Doug Henry's Bike 1


One of the things we'd looked forward to about the 2010 edition of A Day In The Dirt was seeing Doug Henry back in action on his Yamaha. Unfortunately, with the loss of his home to a fire, he had to return to Torrington, CT. (For more on that, check here.)







Click any image for a larger version.

But while at the race, we did run across his YZ450 in the pits, and got an up-close look as well as a chance to shoot some photos. Of the adaptive bikes out there, this is one of the most interesting that we've seen. Of course, the most unique thing about Doug's setup is the roll cage designed to protect him in the event of a crash, since he's belted into the seat.



The custom fiberglas seat itself is pretty interesting, since it's mounted in a way that allows Doug to throw in some extra body English, and designed to pivot from side-to-side. The subframe has also been heavily modified to accomodate a structure for the seat mount, which is a swingarm itself. It and also uses its own separate shock absorber running in parallel with the frame's rear shock.



Starting? It looks like this one got some help with a WR450 starter setup, and shifting is button-controlled air shifting.



The controls on the bars are pretty busy. The upper lever? That's the clutch, and the bigger lever is for the rear brake. The green button? That's for upshifts, and there's a corresponding red button on the right side of the bars.



The roll cage mounts in several spots on the frame, including at the front of the heat tube, on top of the frame behind the triple clamps, at the lower end near the foot mounts, and at the rear on the subframe.


It's cool to see what you can do with a mix of creativity (on the builder's side) and tenacity (on Doug's part).



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