The 1930 Henderson Inline 6 Cylinder

The Henderson Motorcycle Co started out in Detroit Michigan in 1911 where it lasted several years before relocating to Chicago under the Excelsior umbrella. During the prohibition years, Hendersons were used by the police while chasing bootleggers trying to cross in from Canada. The engines were typically inline fours, but the bike pictured below claims to be a prototype inline six which I've never seen before. If this was in fact built in the factory it would be an incredibly rare machine. Being this was one of the last years of Henderson/Excelsior, it is entirely possible that this bike never launched due to the onslaught of the stock market crash. In 1931, Schwinn, Hendersons primary stock holder, simply pulled the plug on the motorcycle production to focus on bicycles despite Hendersons strong sales even in the first years of the great depression. Surely a 6 cylinder would have been a bit of a stretch during those economic times.