Riding The American Dream: Surviving Road Rash & Living To Tell About It: The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles [Hardcover]

Dan Hanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

This true story is the remarkable, modern-day story of a brutally intensive business start-up—that dared to cross swords against the industry giants. As told by Dan Hanlon, founder of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles, this book gives an insider’s view of the company that set out to accomplish what no other independent American start-up had achieved in nearly a century. This amazing saga, which has been compared to the Tucker Automobile company of the 1940s, and the DeLorean Motor company of the early 1980s, chronicles the good, the bad, and the ugly while raising nearly $100 million—from a public offering on Wall Street, to burnouts on Main Street. And, not one dollar from a venture capital firm.

It is the story of the passionate grassroots heroes who endeavored to achieve the impossible.

The pioneer spirit is alive and well in America today. Entrepreneurs, inventors, and everyday citizens alike pursue the American Dream with the vigor and determination of our founding fathers, blazing new trails across dangerous territory to accomplish their goals—except the wilderness now is the modern-day business world. These visionaries inspire us to reach higher, to battle the odds and live our dreams, to achieve our own levels of greatness.

Rediscover the pioneer spirit in the Excelsior-Henderson family story as told in this true, compelling, often humorous tale written by company founder Dan Hanlon. With unequalled passion and a devotion to creating a top-quality product, this team built, from the ground up, a new American motorcycle company that raised nearly $100 million in capital from investors around the globe. Learn how they conquered the elements, battling industry giants, skeptics, and critics to bring their vision to life. Share in the Road Crew’s boundless energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to their pursuit and savor their moments of victory—an endeavor that reminds us what it means to dream, and more importantly, how to achieve our dreams.

This poignant, behind-the-scenes tour of the company’s operations is one Ride you will never forget.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A Great Ride! He does it again—with great aplomb. Honest, educational, and a compelling read." -- Kristen Heimerl, Faculty, Metropolitan State University

"American culture is driven by personal courage and entrepreneurial spirit--our greatest heroes are those who have followed their dreams." -- Ed Youngblood, former CEO, American Motorcycle Association, October 2003

About the Author

Dan Hanlon is a career inventor and entrepreneur of early-stage product development driven companies. He founded Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles, and led the company through 16 rounds of financing that totaled nearly $100 million, achieving $31 million in first year revenue. The venture became an international grassroots story, and attracted nearly 20,000 shareholders, from every state in the Union, and from 15 other countries—from Australia to Switzerland.

As an inventor, he also previously launched EverGreen Solutions, a company that manufactured biodegradable packaging materials.

Over the past 25 years, he has been employed with two Fortune 500 companies, and has been involved with more than a dozen early stage companies.

After growing up on a dairy farm, Dan became a mechanic while earning his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of St. Thomas. He resides in Minnesota with his wife Carol and their three children, Hannah, Hunter and Hayden.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 401 pages
• Publisher: Union Hill Press (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097423026X
• ISBN-13: 978-0974230269
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Failure" now reviewed in MBA class, January 3, 2007

By 

Markus E. Mangold "Markus \m/" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riding The American Dream: Surviving Road Rash & Living To Tell About It: The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pro Editor required, February 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Riding The American Dream: Surviving Road Rash & Living To Tell About It: The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles (Hardcover)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Easy Rider, October 21, 2009

By 

H. Padgett "Big Easy" (Littleton Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Riding The American Dream: Surviving Road Rash & Living To Tell About It: The Official Story of Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycles (Hardcover)

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