From:Doug Very Old Strange e-mail:AMCAdoug@aol.com
Subject:RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Our Gang photo Date:Fri Apr 10 19:42:46 2015
Response to:5641
Dave, there are several thoughts on the correct blue for
Henderson. Ever since I was of legal age to drink beer,
I've heard that Balboa Blue was a color for the Hendersons,
but I'm not sure what years that would apply to. Perhaps it
is in some of the literature. On the dark blue, one year
Steve got snowbound at my house (he showed up with his
trailer in a blizzard). I think he was glad that I told him
he wasn't going anywhere that night. He was so glad that he
polished off my case of Yueungling beer and the steaks I had
in the refrigerator. So that night we compared the finish
of his original Henderson parts he had brought along and my
NOS Ace parts. They were absolutely the same color. His
DeLuxe parts were painted in Packard Blue, just like my
Aces.

----- ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS -----
Doug - you ARE old.

Steve Ciccalone once remarked that Otis Spiker's formula for
Blue paint was responsible for generations of people
painting their bikes the wrong shade of blue.

Steve's original paint KJ and DeLuxe were very, very dark
blue - almost black (Dave C. - would you agree?) My KJ is a
much lighter blue, as are many others.

If Otis was wrong about the blue color, are we sure he was
correct about 1930 and 1931 having black wheels?

Look at the two Ex-Hen Sales Brochures in the FFO/Documents
section. Neither of these have dates on them. The one
we've marked 1929 shows the "set screw" exhaust system which
appeared on the earliest 1929s.

The one we've marked 1930 says "tested...throughout a full
riding season". It mentions an August 1929 race, the bike
pictured has the regular exhaust, the kicker sports the
large pedal rubber. It's pretty clearly a 1930 brochure.

Now look at the Specifications. Under "Finish", it says
"Cream wheels".

Also, the illustration of the new Special in the May 1930
issue of Motorcycling appears to have light colored wheels.

Most of the period photographs are of police departments -
for two reasons: (1) police probably purchased the majority
of these expensive motorcycles, and (2) photographs were
primarily taken by photographers, as iPhones hadn't been
invented yet. Photographs were luxuries.

I'm guessing there wasn't anything special about police
bikes with black wheels - I'm guessing (and it's only a
guess) that Henderson changed from cream to black sometime
in 1930.


----- ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS -----
Rick,
Thanks for making me feel old. I knew Otis Spiker.
ACEdoug


----- ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS -----
Hmmm....black rims....

Gents,

I guess no one ever looks in these files.
Unless this document is bogus it's all right here in the
link below. I mentioned it before but......

If the document is in doubt then it should be noted
somewhere prominently. Otherwise relative newcomers like me
will accept that something written by the Restoral Society
on an old fashioned typewriter as fact.

http://www.hendersonkj.com/ffo/documents/restoral/paint.pdf