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H
OW’S THISfor a classic
summation of the enthusiastic
motorcyclist? It pretty well
describes most of us, and I must
say I wish I had written this myself,
although I have mentioned this
unarguable fact many, many times
in material I have had published in a
large variety of specialist motorcycle
magazines for yonks.
It goes exactly like this, for this
quote is verbatim. “Speed makes an
essential appeal to motorcycle riders.
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in their machine. Even though they
may seldom ride wide open, they like
to know that their machines have a
reserve of speed and power. They
like to boast to friends what their
machines have done and can do.
They like to go out on the
open road and demonstrate they
‘have the goods’”.
That statement could have been
written yesterday, but it was not.
It is, however, a truth which I
hold to be self-evident, for I have
spoken to many thousands of rabid
motorcyclists of all shapes, sizes and
persuasions for a great many years.
I have spoken to these enthusiast
through the pages of numerous
magazine and newspapers, over PA
systems and later in the pits or in
local cafes at Bathurst and Amaroo
Park in Sydney, Calder Raceway in
Melbourne, and the occasional MX
and short-circuit track in country
areas. I have also spoken face-to-
almost 100 years old. It describes
the 1921 1300cc, side-valve, four-
cylinder Henderson motorcycle,
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exceed 100mph on the open road.
It managed that feat more than a
century ago!
It is also noteworthy that a
Henderson Four was ridden in a
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the USA in 1921 by a bloke called
Roy Artley. The bike averaged 65
miles per hour during the run as
it crossed a local desert on the
hottest day of the year and then
climbed several steep gradients, all
on well-graded dirt and rough
sandy surfaces. A great performance
by any standards.
The ride was actually sanctioned by
the local Police (!) who reported that,
at the end of the run, the machine’s
cast-iron cylinders were cool enough
to be touched by the naked hand
without injury with the engine
still running. To add to this quite
remarkable feat, the bike had already
covered just over 16,000 miles.
Several months later, his effort
was up-staged by a Paul Anderson,
a jockey-sized rider – I know a bit
about jockey-sized riders! – who
rode a later 1921 machine along a
measured road at an average speed
of 98mph, a whisker under the
Imperial ‘ton’, on a freezing cold day.
The bike had already covered just
over 10,000 miles and was almost
bog-standard. The only alteration
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pistons which were to replace the
original cast-iron components in the
soon to be introduced 1922 range.
A 1921 Henderson ‘Four’, still
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like the one in that old, but pristine,CLASSICMORRIS
face with countless enthusiastic
motorcyclists over the counters of
spare parts and accessory stores in all
of the six motorcycle stores whose
proprietors had been desperate
enough to have employed me during
my twenty-plus years in the motor
cycle trade. One of those stores, I
might add, was my own, for what
that may be worth.
Let me quote again from the
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for this makes interesting reading as
well; or it should do. I shall not (yet)
mention the brand of motorcycle to
which this brochure belongs.
This is the company’s publicity
blurb which accompanied the release
of a new model.
“Pre-eminent in the motorcycle
world is the new ‘XYZ’. It is
conspicuously in a class by itself for
no other machine combines so many
alluring and attractive features. It is
the culmination of ten years constant
endeavour to build the very ultimate
in motorcycles, a really perfect and
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surpassing smoothness of motor
operation at all speeds, amazing
responsiveness to the throttle,
complete absence of vibration, shock
and jerk, quietness, cleanliness,
dependability and durability to a
degree hitherto unknown, are all built
into the new ‘XYZ’ model, and the
result is a motorcycle which
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weight of inherent worth.” That
was the publicity blurb which
accompanied the release of the
new American motorcycle.
Like the previous quote on the
persona of the ‘serious’ motorcyclist,
the above material is lifted directly
from a colour brochure which isWORDSLESTER MORRIS