All American Racers builds bicycles for grueling charity ride

Thursday, 29 June 2017

By RACER Staff / Images by All American Racers
Above: Motocross champion David Bailey and Doug Henry.

All American Racers, which has a long history of tackling all kinds of interesting engineering projects from racecars to planes to motorcycles, rarely shies away from a challenge. So when motocross champion David Bailey approached AAR in early 2017 about his plan to tackle the "Race Across America" with fellow racers Doug Henry, Jeff Ward and Micky Dymond, he asked if AAR would be interested in making a couple hand cycles that would be lighter and stronger than the cycle he was accustomed to riding.

AAR created two built-from-scratch, hand-powered carbon fiber cycles that Bailey and Henry used to finish second in the grueling bike race.
RAAM is one continuous stage; once the clock starts it does not stop until the finish line. It is billed as the world's longest time trial, about 30 percent longer than the Tour de France. Racers must cycle 3,000 miles, across 12 states, and climb over 170,000 vertical feet. Team racers have a maximum of nine days; solo racers have a maximum of 12 days to complete the race.
With support from the Road 2 Recovery Foundation, the "Legends of the Road" team of motocross greats Bailey, Henry, Ward and Dymond started their journey in Oceanside, California on June 17th and battled the elements – especially the heat through Arizona and the rain and wind as they moved East – for 3,070 miles to reach the shores of Annapolis, Maryland in just seven days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes.
The Road 2 Recovery Foundation is a non-profit organization founded to help professional action sport athletes and AMA-licensed professional motocross/supercross members with financial assistance if they sustain career-ending injuries as well as providing motivational, emotional, and spiritual support to these individuals and their families.


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