Excelsior’s Arthur G. Lyon, John S. Woodworth, and George H. Meiser and their Auto-Cycle Model A singles at the start of the Chicago Motorcycle Club’s Chicago to Kokomo Endurance Run, September 14, 1908.
American motorcycling in 1908 was a whirlwind of excitement and opportunities. Throughout the country, new manufacturers flooded a hungry marketplace with ever-more capable machines. Motorcycling technology fueled an intensely competitive industry as novel features like coaster brakes, mechanical valves, multi-speed clutches, V-twin engines, and a loop frame chassis first emerged. The trade magazines overflowed with advertisements from budding companies, though most still focused on individual components rather than turnkey machines. Still, the earliest motorcycle manufacturers, brands like Light, Excelsior, and Thor, challenged the mighty Indian Motocycles, who dominated the industry seemingly from the start. In 1908 alone, Indian produced over 3,200 motorcycles, while other makers, like Milwaukee's Harley-Davidson, had yet to clear 500.
Like the manufacturing industry, built upon the sturdy foundations of the bicycling craze of the late 1800s, motorcycle culture swelled in popularity. Local riding clubs became catalysts for social recreation and sporting competitions. The first clubs acted as stewards for early motorcyclists, tirelessly promoting riders' rights and campaigning for the construction of improved roads in the United States, of which less than 1,000 miles had been paved at that point. Those original clubs were also the first to begin organizing and promoting competitions outside the cycling circuit, initially finding a home at local dirt horse tracks. Champions of the cycling world soon became pioneers of the motorcycle sport; names like Jacob DeRosier, Arthur Chapple, Paul Derkum, and Ray Seymour became the darlings of the budding scene. Still, track racing remained limited to elite sportsmen and the most daring enthusiast; the majority of riders wanted other means to test their mettle.
Clubs began organizing new styles of races to open the competition to more riders, including sprints up the steepest local roads and taxing cross-country endurance runs. Fundamentally different from the latter, near-vertical hill climbs of the 1920s and 1930s, the early hill climb competitions were a subdued affair but favored by manufacturers as they were a real-world demonstration of their machine's power. Still, the long-distance endurance and reliability runs proved more engaging for enthusiasts and generated more publicity for the manufacturers and soon became the centerpiece of the culture. The road conditions at the time were often abysmal, which meant that any machine to successfully complete the run was indeed worth the asking price back at the dealership. Further, awards were given for a multitude of accomplishments during the multi-day runs, special prizes for fuel economy, cleanliness, and, of course, perfect scores for the most reliable entrants. The endurance events appealed to every type of early enthusiast and often resulted in the fastest times from point to point that people had experienced to that point. The manufacturers, along with many of their founders, were just as involved, and the marketing opportunities proved priceless. A national agency, the Federation of American Motorcyclists (F.A.M.), had been formed to help organize and regulate local clubs nationwide. Naturally, it also assumed the role of sanctioning the endurance runs, hill climbs, and track races. By 1908 the endurance and reliability contest had become the bread and butter of the motorcycle industry and the favored activity among American enthusiasts—it was there that the culture was born.
This photo perfectly captures these elements as they came together in that buzzing moment in history. Enthusiastic riders, industry men, pioneer competitors, and club members all posing proudly with a brand new marquee at the start of such a run.
The machines are 1908 Excelsior Auto-Cycle Model A singles, the first model to roll out of the Chicago-based factory in its first year of production. Excelsior emerged in a crowded marketplace of upstart manufacturers. Yet, the company's reputation for capable reliability, and its dedication to competition success, soon put Excelsior at the head of the industry, becoming one of America's "Big Three" motorcycle manufacturers. The Model A featured a 3.25 HP F-head single on a 1.5-inch belt drive set into a keystone-type frame. Offered in grey with gold stripping, the Auto-Cycle was handsome and robust while remaining relatively light at only 160 pounds. The new machine was low, long, and finished to a high standard with liberal nickel plating. The Excelsior Auto-Cycle initially appeared more British in design to the American press but was noted as looking more sturdy than some offerings from Merkel and Harley-Davidson and comparably priced to similar models of the day at $225. The designer at Excelsior responsible for the Auto-Cycle Model A was George H. Meiser, he is pictured here posing in the back with the number 2 machine.
Another of Excelsior's staff, the company's head of sales, John S. Woodworth, sits atop his Model A next to Meiser on the number 1 machine. We have Woodworth's mustache to thank for this article coming together, as it was a photo of the pioneering Excelsior man that jumped off the page while researching another story on a 1908 Reading-Standard. Woodworth was an avid competitor, having entered hill climbs and endurance runs throughout the region as he established a distribution network for Excelsior. He had recently competed in the F.A.M.'s 1,112-mile New York to Chicago run in July, 1908, where he received a perfect score and won both the economy medal for covering 80 miles on just 2 quarts of fuel as well as the Diamond medal for the neatness of his machine. His teammate and fellow C.M.C. member Arthur Lyon also received a perfect score on that run. Lyon, the third man photographed here with the number 3 machine, worked as an engineer and mechanic in the factory, later acting as the head of the service department for Excelsior following its acquisition by Ignaz Schwinn. An avid competitor in his own right, Lyon had also recently won the hill climb competition in Algonquin, one of the first publicized victories for Excelsior.
The contest that the dapper trio assembled for was yet another endurance and reliability run set for 1908. Staged by the Chicago Motorcycle Club, the two-day event held on September 14, and 15 tested the skill and stamina of its entrants as they covered 415 miles from Chicago to Kokomo, IN. As was often the case then, the terrible road conditions demanded the utmost from both the machines and the riders alike. The 19 entrants were to cover 207 miles per day with several control points along the way, but according to reports at the time, only about 100 miles of each leg was considered passable. One of the most strenuous segments was the 93-mile stretch between South Bend and Michigan City, a stretch that was typically hub-deep with sand under normal conditions, yet the severe lack of rain that season had significantly worsened the route. As pictured here, Meiser, Woodworth, and Lyon made up the Excelsior team, while other notable entrants included Indian's pioneer racing star Fred Huyck, Merkel's J.A. Turner, and two men from Milwaukee onboard Harley-Davidsons, Ralph Sporleder and the company's co-founder Walter Davidson.
The run was characterized by the near-constant incidents matched by the rugged determination of the riders who pressed on. Arthur Lyon took a spill at 40 M.P.H. and somehow had his heel tangled in the rear wheel's spokes.
Heavily bruised with two sprained wrists and stuck upside down in a ditch, Lyon was in a pinch when C.S. Hinckley, running his Thor twin, stopped to help. Shortly after getting Lyon up and running again, Hinckley found himself tumbled headlong into a ditch, earning a few scrapes and bruises of his own. Another of the Excelsior team, George , passed out in the saddle on the second day yet somehow managed to make it to the control on time. The majority of riders suffered mechanical failures, countless punctures, and accidents that could not be recovered from. Still, in the end, seven riders defied the grueling conditions to finish with perfect scores. It was decided that a run-off race would need to be held to determine the winner of the C.M.C.'s silver cup, but given the poor state of the riders, the run-off was scheduled several days later.
The machines were stored away so as not to be worked on or repaired, and on September 20, the riders gathered again to crush some more miles. The officials arranged for the run-off to be a single day, a single leg of 206 miles, which, if no single winner could be determined, would repeat until a victor emerged. Of the seven perfect scores, including all 3 Excelsior men, neither Meiser nor Lyon was permitted to run by the physician, given how battered they were. That left John Woodworth, Excelsior's mustachioed marauder, to be its sole representative in the contest. Woodworth was joined by Harley’s Walter Davidson, Thor’s C.S. Hinckley and J.S. Tormey, and George W. Lyon onboard an Indian. On the first day's run, Woodworth struck a deep sinkhole on the road and snapped his fork near the town of Valparaiso. He managed to mend the damage and make the following two control stops in time, but on the first return leg, the fork gave out again, forcing him to retire. The remaining four began again on the second day, but Tormey's was next to be eliminated when his Thor’s V-twin seized up. Then, Indian rider George Lyon managed to strike the same sinkhole that Woodworth had the day before, also snapping his fork and leaving only Hinckley and Davidson to duke it out.
Walter Davidson and C.S. Hinckley matched one another's grit on the third day, battling through a heavy downpour and subsequent thick mud. By the day's end both men had maintained their perfect scores, but Davidson had to reluctantly concede as business demanded his attention back in Milwaukee. Finally, on September 24, Hinckley made the return trek to take the cup, in total covering 1,116 miles to win what was supposed to be a 415-mile contest. Despite not claiming the ultimate victory, Excelsior had three more perfect score feathers to stick in its cap, along with the other victories at reliability contests and hill climbs in 1908.
The brand would leverage its success and the success of riders like Woodworth, Lyon, and Meiser, publicizing the capability and accomplishment of its machines in the competition space to drive sales in its expanding dealership network. These three men continued to play a crucial role in helping to establish Excelsior as a premier American marquee, laying the foundations for the company to become one of the country's Big Three manufacturers, remaining in business until 1931. The endurance and reliability runs would continue to a pillar of the culture in the following years, acting as a bedrock throughout the high-stakes motordrome era and high-cost Golden Age of Class-A competition in the late teens and early 1920s. Eventually, the spirit of the endurance run evolved into transcontinental record runs by icons like Erwin Baker and the later Gyspy Tours of the mid-20th century. The spirit of those earliest runs remains alive and well today in a culture of cruising, Iron Butt tours, and the beloved annual Motorcycle Cannonball.
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