VOL. 56 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 8, 2019 P131
often sponsored by motorcycle
manufacturers as a way to ad-
vertise their product's speed and
reliability.
Alan opened a Harley-David-
son dealership in Redlands. He
hired a manager and repairman
for the shop so he could focus
on his record attempts.
With the U.S. entering World
War I in April of 1917, record runs
might seem to be a frivolous en-
deavor, but Bedell devised a way
to tie in his transcontinental re-
cord attempt with the war effort.
He was promoting motorcycles to
the military, as a way to transport
military data such as maps and
photographs, which could not
be sent via telegraph. With him
on his cross-country ride, Bedell
carried a message from General
Hunter Liggett in Los Angeles, to
General Franklin J. Bell on Gov-
ernor's Island, New York.
Bedell, sponsored by the
Henderson factory, made his run
on the stock Henderson four-cyl-
inder on June 6 of 1917, starting
in Los Angeles and making it to
New York City on June 13, hav-
ing ridden 3296 miles in seven
days, 16 hours and 16 minutes.
That broke the previous record
set in 1914, by three days and 20
hours.
Bedell's accomplishment
was featured as the top story in
many of the motorcycle publica-
tions of the day. Henderson was
quick to tout Bedell's feat, and
he was featured in advertising
by companies like Champion,
which supplied the Henderson's
sparkplugs, Goodrich Tires to
name a few.
Bedell didn't get to enjoy the
accolades of his cross-country
record for long.
O'Brien explains.
"Unfortunately, World War I
was brewing and he enlisted
and went to aviation camp in
Louisiana in 1918," Chris says.
"It was during the influenza
pandemic and Alan, like many
young military men of the time,
the influenza killed him. He was
22 when he died.
"Growing up my family talked
about him. My grandmother knew
him and she would tell me the
stories. The motorcycle stayed
in the family up until World War
II in New Jersey and then was
scrapped for steel during the War
effort.
"My idea was to build a trib-
ute bike to him, but I wanted an
original '17 bike. Once I got con-
nected with the Henderson com-
munity, I got a frame from Dave
Ciccalone, an engine from Mark
Hill, a fork from Frank Westfall,
everything came together and
now she's a lovely bike."
I had the privilege to watch
O'Brien and other Cannonball
competitors as I covered part of
the event this year. The impres-
sion I had of the Henderson
motorcycles in the run was that
it was almost unfair. The bikes
in the competition this year had
to be at least 90 years old and
it seemed a miracle that many
of the early rickety, loud and
smoky single and twin-cylinder
machines of the era could make
it through a single day of riding,
much less traverse the entire
country from East Cost to West.
That wasn't the case with the
Hendersons. Those Detroit-made
machines (later moving to Chi-
cago when Excelsior bought the
brand) were ahead of their time.
With its longitudinal-mounted
inline four-cylinder engine, the
low-slug and long Henderson
motorcycles sounded smooth
and powerful and didn't seemed
all that far removed from modern-
day machines.
O'Brien did the tribute right.
He finished the Cannonball with
a perfect score and finished the
Run ranked 23rd out of the over
100 starters. Uncle Alan would
have been proud. CN
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