Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127992
Excelsior-Henderson Super X « The all-new Excelsior-Henderson uper X has many of the key elements that set the past Ellcelsior-Hendersons apart, but they are expressed In modem form. The Super X Is a big bike, with a 675-pound claimed dry _ight and 65-lnch whMIbase. S1ash-cut pipes (shown) . . optional. By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kel Edge he story of how a pair of fortysomething farm boys from the Midwest named Dan and Dave Hanlon are re-creating the Lost Legends of American motorcycling, by refounding the historic Excelsior-Henderson company and building a .modem version of the legendary X-Twin cruiser, is strictly Hollywood. Except it's also true, proved by the fact that we got to ride one of the first Super X Excelsior-Henderson ciuisers off the new company's Minnesota production line during Daytona's Cycle Week '99. Check out this synopsis of "Dave and Dan's Excelsior Adventure" and see if you don't agree that Messrs. Costner and Hanks ought to give the script a read-through - because what the Hanlons are doing is as American as apple pie - or Harley-Davidson. They've worked night and day for six years to get a multimillion-dollar company up and running from ground zero, to construct motorcycles similar to but different than the ones that have been their hobby for the past quarter-century, spurred on by a desire to offer like-minded customers a prod uct they believe in, and which gives new life to a significant ingredient of America's motorcycling past (see sidebar). In doing so, they've not only made history live again, but they have also given expression to the kind of "what if?" dream many of us have at some time in our lives, without Dave and Dan's drive to fulfill it - the dream of building somethlllg from nothing, and having fun in the acl1ievement of doin'g so. But back in the 1960s, when, together with their six brothers and sisters, Dave (now 46) and Dan (42) were growing up on their parents' 160-acre dairy farm in Belle Plaine, Minnesota, the only hint that tbey might one day try to build a motorcycle that made Minneapolis famous, rather than Milwaukee, came from the various run-down dirt bikes they tooled around the family farm aboard. And though both became committed bikers in adulthood, the succession of Harleys - and Yamal1as and Hondas - they've ridden ever since served mainly as an antidote to the stresses of everyday corporate business life, not as a means of earning a crust. Until now. "Motorcycles are my release," says Dave Hanlon of the 11 Harleys he's owned to date. "1 love to ride them and just have fun with them." "Biking is a kind of cleansing of the soul," agrees older brother Dan. 'The wind in my face and the feeling of the open road spell freedom." Okay, 1 hear you say, there's the RUB - as in "Rich Urban Biker." Except the Hanlons are much more than weekend warriors, as the past six y\!ars of their lives will attest. It was 1993 when it aU started, when the brothers' annual summer visit to the Sturgis bike event - togeth'er with Dave's wife, Jennie, herself an enthusiastic rider who is also a partner in the company - coincided with a watershed moment in each of their lives. Dan had just sold the eco-friendly packaging-material company he'd founded and was looking to use the $2.4 million in proceeds as fu~l to alter his direction, and Dave was ready for a mange in his life a.fter 17 managerial years in the trucking business. Hanging out at the homecoming for the American cruising fraternity at Sturgis, Uley noticed that almost everyone in town was riding a Harley or a rip-off Hog, and Uley asked themselves why. By the tin1e they left the Black Hills of Dakota for the ride home, Uley'd decided to try to shake what seemed like Harley's unwarranted monopoly, by offering U.S. bikers another choice of brand. Founding the Hanlon Manufacturing Co. in December '93 with five grand each in cash and a $40,000 bank loan obtained by pledging their motorcycles as collatera.l, the brothers worked hard to attract outside investors to bankroll their plans to establish a new marque. Some $15.1 million of capital was raised - but still the proposed new motorcycle didn't have a name, and added The 5O-degree V·twin features a ftve-speed gearbox with gear primary drive.