history
William G. Henderson and his brother, Thomas, founded the Henderson Motorcycle Company in Detroit, Michigan, in 1911. During its early days, the company came out with a 4-cylinder, 56cmc, 7 horsepower engine, which proved to be a pretty remarkable bike. This model was actually the third 4-cylinder motorcycle manufactured in America.
During the next few years, the motorcycles received numerous improvements so, in 1913, the B Model got better forks, a lower saddle position and better brakes. Moreover, in 1914, the C Model was the first bike equipped with a two speed gearbox.
In 1918, new changed related to the company occurred because the Henderson brothers sold their plans to Excelsior's Ignatz Schwinn, forming a new company dubbed Excelsior-Henderson.
Obviously, the newly-founded company brought out new models, but even so, the problems continued for the bike manufacturer.
In 1919, William Henderson left the company in order to produce a faster motorcycle, so he started a new company named Ace Motorcycle. During its early days, the company only produced a few motorcycles but in the next year, it recorded an impressive growth. For instance, in 1922 Paul Anderson won multiple races with a De Luxe bike which develop 28 horsepower.
Unfortunately, William Henderson died in an accident in 1922, while he was riding an Ace Sporting Solo. In 1923, Arthur O. Lemon left Excelsior to join Ace as their chief engineer so the motorcycle was dramatically improved in the next few years.
Six years after the company was officially launched, Henderson's four-cylinder became one of the premier motorcycles in the country. Although it all looked to go pretty well for the company, Ace started experiencing new problems in 1924.
Although the owners struggled to revamp the Ace brand in 1926, the whole company was absorbed by Indian. Four-cylinder motorcycles based on Henderson's Ace design were in production under the Indian brand until 1943.
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