1917 Henderson

[exeric]

I've had this 1917 Henderson for about 25 years. It was a mess when I got it, and I put tons of work, and love into it. I'm prejudiced, but I think it is one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made. Right now it's covered up, in a garage and I haven't seen it in over a year so I thought I would over-ride the "cut-off Henderson" post that has been on the forum for a long time and put up this pic of my Henderson so I can look at it from time to time. Yeah, Kind of self centered, but at least I can see it here on the forum.

[EricOlson]

Eric, for some reason the picture didn't come through, just a bunch of characters. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is eager to see your bike. Can you please repost?

[joe fxs fxr]

yes, please post the picture

[JoJo357]

Don't mean to step on your post Eric, but You posted these years ago, and i'm still drooling--hahaha. I'll delete these after You post Eric.

*M.A.D.*
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[painterdale]

That is a beautiful motorcycle! You do fantastic work, Eric!

Dale

[exeric]

I deleted the characters under the pic so we'll see if that helped. If not, here's another picture. febb.JPG

[painterdale]

It's got lights now! Very nice!

Dale

[pisten-bully]

Eric, that's beautiful! I'm certain there's boatloads of your "sweat equity" into it and it shows....what a great job, you should be justifiably proud of it!

[rms337]

Wow, is that nice. I’d have to print that onto one of those giant canvas prints and put it on the living room wall right above the couch, at least until my wife had something to say about it.

[EricOlson]

Definitely a bike worth showing off! Thanks for restoring it and sharing it with the rest of us. I'm not very knowledgeable on early Henderson's. Is the one in this photo the same year? It looks like the rear leg of the front fork is a little different (at least the three stripes I see), but a lot of the rest looks similar. Can you tell what year it is?

Charles Lee on motorcycle.jpg

[BigLakeBob]

Always enjoy looking a one of your beautiful Hendersons. Thanks for putting the pictures up for us.

[exeric]

Definitely a bike worth showing off! Thanks for restoring it and sharing it with the rest of us. I'm not very knowledgeable on early Henderson's. Is the one in this photo the same year? It looks like the rear leg of the front fork is a little different (at least the three stripes I see), but a lot of the rest looks similar. Can you tell what year it is?

Charles Lee on motorcycle.jpg

Thanks Eric; The Henderson in the picture is a 1919 which is the last year for the Detroit type Hen.(followed by the Model K in 1920). The 1918 and '19 were almost identical but the 1919 had enough Schwinn Excelsior content to differentiate years (and screw the Henderson Bothers out of their royalty agreement).However, there is no hard line on years with Excelsior products as they went more by 'Series' with year as a secondary identifier. In the case of the bike in the picture, I can see it has the Excelsior Double Brake assembly, which gave it the ability to stop slightly better than a 1918 Hen.

[exeric]

This is a picture of my 1919 Henderson. Since this picture was taken, I spent years tracking down all the electrical items to make it a full electric Henderson. It used a General Electric generator which is the rarest of the rare old parts you could hunt for.

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[EricOlson]

Thanks for the details Eric, and for sharing a picture of your 1919 Henderson. Must be quite a sight to walk into your shop and see both of your Henderson's in there. A beautiful pair of bikes for sure!