4 Responses to “Riding The American Dream: Surviving Road Rash & Living To Tell About It: The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles”

1. Jeff SKI Kinsey
   April 2nd, 2010 @ 11:46 pm

   Some of the best books ever, are the ones that friends give me. Of course, it helps to have smart friends! My brother bought an Excelsior-Henderson motorcycle. He loves it. Convincing my other brother to buy all three of us Dan Hanlon’s book.

   It is first of all, a great recap of the seven plus years of E-H’s struggle from the man at the helm. But is really is a great business “how to” or perhaps “how not to” launch a capital intensive manufacturing business. The tales of fund raising are not for the faint of heart.

   Serious about a startup business? Read this book first. It is so fast paced, that I was able to read the whole 401 pages in just two sessions. Some great photos included, as well as some corporate documents like the list of E-H dealers.

   Even if you are not going for a capital intensive venture, it will still help. The passages on corporate culture were great. And the interaction with Wall Street was fun reading. Oh yea, everyone that knows anything about E-H has second guessed Hanlon. He convinced me that every single criticism was for the most part, untrue. One example is the building. It just “looks” expensive. The true costs were amazingly low.

   If you are serious about business and enjoy motorcycles [riding or watching them ride down the street], this is a must have. One of my top twenty picks.
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. H. Padgett
   April 3rd, 2010 @ 1:00 am

   As a proud Super X owner and rider, this ia a must have for all Excelsior -Henderson owners as well as any Biker in America
   Rating: 5 / 5

3. Anonymous
   April 3rd, 2010 @ 1:15 am

   Not sure of the complete story of what happened with EH, I was curious to learn more. The history of the start up venture was interesting as were stories from Sturgis. Even the section of the “gearhead” related topics weren’t too hard to follow, as I was afraid I’d be confused. But overall, I don’t really understand what happened except that the financing options ran out. But why? That area is foggy and seemed condensed in the later chapters. It makes you wonder what the 2nd side of the story is. I think some professional editing would’ve helped in the story, as well. The writing was obviously as Dan Hanlon would speak aloud. But that tone gets tiresome and he sometimes gets off on tangets. Perhaps the book wouldn’t have been as long either.
   Rating: 3 / 5

4. Markus E. Mangold
   April 3rd, 2010 @ 2:50 am

   We read the book as part of a business strategy class in my MBA program.
   
   The book is very insightful. Besides the fact, that the venture ultimately went belly-up, Hanlon describes his methodology for raising capital. He raised +$90 million over 7 years – a significant achievement, considering that he did not have huge investors right away, but focused on “grass-roots” fund raising.
   
   I was impressed and took many lessons learned away from his approach.
   
   He details his milestone fund raising and the principles he founded the company on. The book furthermore is an application guide on how to identify your target customers and on how to market towards them, so that they will not only buy your product, but also help you finance the venture that designs and manufactures the product – quite impressive and an absolutely novel approach.
   
   Before you pass judgement, based on what you have read in the press, I recommend highly to read Dan Hanlon’s account of the dream he lived and embarked on realizing. If you still think Hanlon was full of it, well that is an opinion, too, but at least you have exposed yourself to both sides.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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