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BIG X / EXCELSIOR HENDERSON
So how did two farm boys come up with the idea to start a motorcycle company? "It was literally while riding our Harleys that we decided", said Dave. They were at the Sturgis motorcycle rally in 1993 having few beers and talking motorcycles. They agreed there was a legitimate need and room for another great American cruiser.
That summer, they dug through collections of old motorcycle magazines and burrowed through the public library. Hoping to cash in on the current heavyweight cruiser market boom, they set their sights on finding a "classic, high-quality, performance cruiser that needed a jumpstart back into existence."
They ended up with a list of 200 motorcycle companies to look at from a business perspective and then whittled that down to 50. Out of that 50, 5 were looked at critically. As part of their intense and critical research, they interviewed many industry people, but were extremely careful to keep their intentions under wraps!
The bike they were searching for had to be capable of turning the head of a blue-blood, die-hard Harley hugger. It would have to be one hell of a bike to accomplish this. After all, Harley riders are a fiercely dedicated bunch!
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"When we found Excelsior-Henderson, we quit looking", said Dave. They felt that Excelsior-Henderson was "the best name in American motorcycle history, PERIOD!," said Dave.
"We had a good understanding of the industry from the consumer perspective and a wonderful sense of chemistry of the consumers, their desires and what our final product needs to feel like, look like and price at," Dave said.
One of the first tasks was to find and acquire the necessary trademarks and copyrights to start the company. It has been a long, arduous complex enigma to piece everything together, they said. By the time they started their search, the rights had been spread throughout the world. [next page]