1930 Henderson "Streamliner"
The motorcycling world loves a 'barn find', an old, obscure machine
wheeled out of the woodwork for the first time.
And this is one of the biggest revelations of recent months.
It's a 1930 Henderson that was customized before WW2 by a fellow called O. Ray Courtney and fitted with 'streamliner' bodywork.
One night in March, 1950, O. Ray Courtney worked until two a.m. and drove home discouraged. He was trying to design a better motorcycle. He wanted one with the seat forward, with better cooling, better springing and a more beautiful body. Discarded sketches littered the floor of his shop. That night in a dream he saw a streamlined beauty skim across a flowered field. Too excited to report for work the next day, he hastily put his dream on paper - and he is riding that dream cycle now through the streets of Pontiac, Mich.
The art deco influence is obvious; legendary automotive
designer Harley Earl could have drawn those curves.
It's all the more unusual because the mechanicals are hidden: even at the height
of the Art Deco movement, most motorcycles were a triumph of form over function,
with exposed cooling fins, brake drums and suspension springs. The bike is owned
by collector Frank Westfall of Syracuse . It caused a stir in June 2010
when it appeared at the Rhinebeck Grand National Meet, a motorcycle show held a
couple of hours drive north of NYC.
Henderson was a Chicago brand and one of the American 'Big Three' (with Harley-Davidson and Indian) until the onset of the Great Depression. It went bust in 1931. But you can see the influence of the 'streamliner' style on another contemporary North American brand : Victory. If there's a spiritual successor to this Henderson custom, it's the Victory Vision Tour, a gargantuan cruiser with completely enclosed bodywork and not a leather tassel or saddlebag in sight.
