The Last Remaining Henderson Racer

Among the rarest motorcycles here at Wheels Through Time, our 1917 Henderson endurance racer is near the top of the list. Brothers Tom and Bill Henderson started producing luxurious four-cylinder motorcycles in Detroit in 1912. As their brand grew, Henderson motorcycles quickly developed a reputation for being smooth, reliable, and powerful. Shortly before selling the company to Ignaz Schwinn and merging with Excelsior, Henderson began a concentrated effort to break motorcycle records with their machines. The company sponsored many of the nation’s top riders to bring glory to the Henderson name through these broken records. In their efforts, they broke the 24-hour sidecar record, the transcontinental record, and the “three flags” record, going from Canada to Mexico in just 72 hours. Our 1917 Henderson was slated to be one of these record-breaking machines.

Henderson widely publicized these runs in company advertisements for the next few years. The museum’s 1917 Henderson was meant to be the face of this ad campaign, with famed racer Maldwyn Jones hired to break the 24-hour solo distance record. Jones arrived at the Cincinnati boardtrack in the spring of 1917, ready to ride. The run was going well, with Jones setting a blistering pace that was sure to beat the record. About halfway through, a light canister was moved in the middle of the night, causing low visibility on part of the track. Jones bumped the wall, and the ensuing wreck brought the attempt to an abrupt end. The impact damaged the motorcycle beyond quick repair, and the day was done. This would mark one of the only times that Henderson failed to break a record during a sponsored attempt.

For eight decades, Jones’ motorcycle sat derelict and forgotten until 1995, when museum founder Dale Walksler discovered the bike for sale at an antique motorcycle swap meet. Realizing he’d come across something significant and incredibly rare, Dale sent the machine to Steve Huntzinger for a world-class restoration.

During the bike’s extensive restoration, Dale dreamed up the idea of using the bike to reattempt one of Henderson’s records. As boardtracks are hard to come by, he settled on using the Henderson to recreate Alan Bedell’s transcontinental run. In 1917 Bedell would travel from California to New York in just seven days aboard his factory-sponsored Henderson.