Excelsior!

  

Adjective

excelsior 

1. Loftier, yet higher, more elevated; ever upward
2. more surpassing, more excelling

 In the early years of motorcycling in America, there were hundreds of manufacturers that came and went. Out of those hundreds, three rose to prominent status. Harley Davidson and Indian are practically household names, but Excelsior-Henderson, the third of "The Big Three", as they are sometimes called, is a little less known. Yet, in it's day, the Excelsior was legendary for speed, reliability, and sleek lines.

  In the early years there were three different motorcycles being manufactured called Excelsior, one in America, one in the UK, and one in Germany. It's the American brand that became the legend. The tale of how it came to be is an interesting one. It burst onto the market like a shooting star, burning brightly for a time and then, like a shooting star, was gone. To rightly understand the story of the Excelsior-Henderson, we need to look at three different stories, of three different businessmen. Each businessman had a son, and each son had a dream. A dream of building a motorcycle. 

  The humble beginnings of Excelsior originated in 1876 when businessman George T. Robie founded the Excelsior Supply Co. as a distributor of sewing machine parts in Chicago. As business expanded and markets changed, by the early 1890s, the Excelsior Supply Co. had become one of the largest distributors of bicycles and bicycle parts. Again following market trends, the company took on automotive parts distribution in 1904.

  With the sudden success of the blossoming motorcycle industry, the bicycle market slumped in 1905. Everyone wanted a motorcycle, including George Robie's son Frederick Robie, who was trying to convince his father to take advantage of the motorcycle boom to begin manufacturing one under the Excelsior brand.

  Prospects seemed promising, with a trade magazine of the day claiming that, "The Excelsior Company is the largest and best known bicycle supply house in the west, and has the means and equipment and acquaintance to cut a very large figure in the motorcycle business." In 1907 the Excelsior Motor Manufacturing Company was formed as a subsidiary of the Excelsior Supply Co., with son Frederick Robie at the helm as President. 

  Later that same year the first Excelsior motorcycle offered to the public. It was called the "Triumph" (no affiliation with the British manufactured Triumph). It was another clone assembled using the Thor engine but using a frame of Excelsior design. In 1908, a new model, the Auto-Cycle, was offered, completely designed Excelsior's designer George Meiser. Business was good and Excelsior motorcycles were proving popular on the market, but the following year, in 1909, father George Robie died of complications following surgery for appendicitis. Son Frederick was left in charge of not only Excelsior Motor and Mfg. Co. but also the Excelsior Supply Co. Business was booming and Excelsior motorcycles were in high demand. The company expanded, offering a V-twin in 1911, but the stress of running both enterprises was to much for Frederick Robie. He was ready to sell.

  The hero to save the day was Ignaz Schwinn.

Schwinn was born in Germany in 1860. When he was 11 years old his father died and he found work repairing bicycles. He later found a job as a machinist for a bicycle manufacturer and designed his own bicycles in his spare time. He eventually was promoted to factory manager and designer. In 1891 Ignaz Schwinn left Germany for Chicago. He again found work in the bicycle business as factory manager and designer for the Hill Cycle Mfg. Co. After three short years he was unhappy with his position and wanted to start his own business. Schwinn joined with fellow German immigrant Adolf Arnold in 1895 to form Arnold, Schwinn and Co., building bicycles in Chicago. Business was good, but Arnold decided to retire in 1908, selling his share to Schwinn, who continued to grow the business. 

  Ignaz Schwinn also had a son, Frank Schwinn, who was quite a motorcycle enthusiast. Frank convinced his father that expanding into the motorcycle market would be a good business move. By 1910 the Schwinns had a working prototype. It was a pretty advanced design for the day, with a parallel twin engine, a clutch, and a shaft drive. Despite the promising prototype, Ignaz Schwinn decided that it would be better to purchase an existing company than to start one from scratch, and as luck would have it, there was one available right there in Chicago. 

  In November of 1911, Ignaz Schwinn made an agreement with Frederick Robie to purchase both the Excelsior Supply Co. and the Excelsior Motor and Mfg. Co., including the factory, all assets and equipment, the tooling, the patents, and the rights to the name Excelsior. In 1912 the deal was finalized with Schwinn personally signing the check to the tune of $500,000. Knowing that racing was good advertisement, special built racing machines were prepared and professional riders were hired.

  Later that same year on December 30th, racer Lee Humiston took his new, shiney grey Excelsior, with it's trademark big red X on the tank, to the Playa del Rey motordrome, the largest boardtrack of it's day. During the day's speed trials he turned in a blistering time around the 1 mile lap of 36 seconds, the first rider and machine to officially achieve the 100 mph (161 km/h) mark. 

  In 1914, a new factory was built. It was the largest motorcycle manufacturing facility of it's day, complete with a test track on the roof. Excelsior motorcycles continued to set records on the track, winning a 300 mile race in 1915 with an average speed of 85 mph (136.8 km/h). 1915 was the first year of the "Big Valve X" and was advised as "the fastest motorcycle ever."

The new 1915 models debuted with new, sweeping lines, a tapered fuel tank allowing for a lowered seat height, and front fender sporting a sweeping curve to the lower end. Excelsior motorcycles were at the top of their game, only being surpassed in the marketplace by Indian. 

  By 1917 Schwinn was wanting to expand the models offered by Excelsior further. Four cylinder motorcycles were becoming increasingly popular and Schwinn wanted a 4 cylinder machine of his own. Once again, it proved easier to purchase, than to design one.

  Enter William Henderson. Born in 1882 in Cleveland, his grandfather was the founder of the Winton Motor Car Company. William's father Thomas Sr. was the Vice President. William had big dreams of success in the motorcycle industry, sketching dozens of designs. With helpful advice from his more experienced father, he had a completed design of a 4 cylinder motorcycle in 1909. William was ready to start building, but his father wasn't quite convinced. His father finally relented and gave William the money to build a prototype, with the belief that it would go nowhere. Just two years later, in 1911, William had his prototype built. It was a success. His brother Thomas Henderson Jr. joined him in founding the Henderson Motorcycle Company in 1912, in Detroit Michigan. 

  Henderson motorcycles were an instant success. In 1913 a Henderson motorcycle became the first to circumnavigate the globe, which boosted the brand's popularity. They proved powerful and reliable and the 4 cyl engine offered smoother power as opposed to the V-twin design. The design quickly became a favorite with police departments across the country and was popular among the wealthy. 

  The problem was that they were costly to build. Only the wealthiest could afford them. (a common problem with all 4 cyl motorcycles during the early years) By 1917 Henderson had made some impressive design improvements but the company was bleeding money. The profits just weren't there and William and Thomas Henderson decided to sell to pay the piling debts. 

  Perfect timing for Ignaz Schwinn and Excelsior, who acquired Henderson motorcycles in 1917 to form Excelsior-Henderson. Thomas Henderson was brought on board as Sales Manager. William Henderson also stayed with Excelsior for a couple years, but not agreeing with Schwinn's changes, left the company and founded the Ace Motorcycle Co. in 1919.

  After the first World War there were only three survivors in the American motorcycle industry. Harley Davidson, Indian, and Excelsior-Henderson. All three traded victories on the race track and with the release of Excelsior's "Super X" of 1925, Excelsior began to claim many world records. 

  In 1929 Excelsior released its sleekest design, with beautiful teardrop tanks, but as fate would have it, the stock market crashed that same year. It was the beginning of the Great Depression and motorcycle sales plummeted immediately. Indian was saved by company CEO Paul Dupont (of Dupont Paints fame) infusing the company with his own cash. Harley Davidson survived through a sale of machinery, tooling, and designs to Japan, giving rise to the Japanese motorcycle industry. Excelsior-Henderson struggled on for a couple years. 

  Finally, in 1931, Ignaz Schwinn was convinced that the Depression would last longer than the company could endure. He called a meeting of all department heads and set the company's future course with one sentence, "Gentlemen, today we stop." 

  Despite orders still on the books, the decision was made to cease motorcycle production. Believing correctly that bicycles would sell better in the struggling economy, Schwinn continued on as a bicycle manufacturer, producing one of the most popular and successful bicycles in American history, even beyond Ignaz Schwinn's passing, well into the 1980s.