1930 Art Deco Henderson

[SuziQ07]

Hello! Thought I would share these photos of a 1930 Art Deco Henderson. I was talking with the owner the other day (Frank Westfall in Syracuse, NY). The guy who owns the motorcycle is a really neat guy, and fun to talk to. I had stopped into his shop (Middle Earth Leather) to ask about an alteration to the sleeves of my leather motorcycle jacket (they let too much air in when I'm riding). Frank just got back from racing his 1915 Henderson Four Cylinder in the 2010 Cannonball Race all the way from the east coast to the west coast! I'm truly amazed that these ancient motorcycles are capable of going all the way across the country!! :2tup:

[blaine]

That is one amazing looking motorcycle. :roll: :)

[dhgeyer]

I once rode with a guy who was riding a 1930 Henderson. His name was Carl Bleyle. He was 70 and I was about 16 or 17. He bought the bike new in 1930. He was an auto mechanic, and did all the work on the bike himself. He had done a lot of modifications. I remember the bike well, though. It had an inline 4 with the crank running longitudinally and the cylinders vertical. It looked (and sounded) something like a Model T engine, and made the bike so long that it had extensions on the handlebars to be reachable from the seat. Mr Bleyle claimed that it was capable of over a hundred mph. It had a clutch pedal, but not the flapper type that the Harleys had - just a straight clutch pedal like a car. It had two gearshifts on the left side. One set the gear, and the other determined forward or reverse. Theoretically it could go as fast backward as forward! He was an interesting character, and that old bike was a treat to see running for all that time. This would have been about 1963 or 1964. And the bike had never been down in all that time. Oh, and the one problem it had was that the third cylinder from the front had a tendency to overheat.

[alanmcorcoran]

Very interesting piece! The Strat has an art-deco retro look ("streamlined" [and I kind of like it]) but nothing on this scale. I've never seen anything quite like this! Thanks for posting.

[cayuse]

Beautiful bike! Thanks for posting.

[3-D Video]

Tres cool!