SIGforum
Book called Riding the American Dream about Excelsior-Henderson

This topic can be found at:
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/720601935/m/3630033354

February 11, 2019, 04:15 PM
sandman76
Book called Riding the American Dream about Excelsior-Henderson
A while back I was watching a YouTube video where these guys were buying a Rune from a dealership to resell. In the storage where the Rune was, they also had a 1999 Excelsior-Henderson SuperX.

I didn't really get into street bikes until 2005 when I bought my first Harley. I'd never heard of Excelsior-Henderson before. Other than the old ones. I'd seen pictures of those. Not sure how I missed the whole modern version.

Anyway I got interested in this SuperX bike and wanted to find out more. I found out that the guy, Dan Hanlon, that started the company wrote a book about the whole venture. "Riding the American Dream".

Hanlon came up with the idea to start a motorcycle manufacturing company in 1993. Came up with a business plan to do it. First OEM proprietary motorcycle to be built in the US in like 50 years.

He came up with almost 100 million in financing for R&D, to build a factory in Minnesota, and start up production. Actually got almost 2000 bikes built before the company ran out of ways to get more money. Closed her down in Dec. 1999.

Quite an interesting story. Here's the link for the website. Still can buy OEM parts and there are even a couple places to have them worked on.

http://www.excelsior-henderson.com/


_______________________
“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.”
― Frank Zappa
February 13, 2019, 03:36 PM
sandman76
I forgot to say in the OP was I got this book off Amazon and read it. Just kind of wondering if anyone else had. Or if anyone here had personal experience with one of their bikes.


_______________________
“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.”
― Frank Zappa