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Some of you may have been wondering, “Whatever happened to the guy with that red Henderson motorcycle?” Well, I’m still here and the journey of the Red One continues.
After my original-stock 1919 crankshaft sheared in Kansas (at about the halfway-point during my solo 2019 centennial effort to exactly retrace C.K. Shepherd’s 1919 route across America on his Henderson), I had Mark Hill at 4th Coast Fours replace that crankshaft. That just rolls right off the tongue as though I am referring to a minor mechanical repair, “replace the crankshaft.” But you have enough experience to see right through my oversimplification. Definitely not a small or quick project, especially on a 100-year-old four-cylinder engine where every part has to be sourced, custom made, or delicately repaired. Anyway, once the engine was back up and running, I had intended to resume the ride from Kansas in 2020 on to Los Angeles and up the California coast to finish in San Francisco, with many stops in between. But then COVID hit and set everything back.
But before COVID hit, my broken crankshaft experience had already motivated me to start “buying insurance.” I began sourcing parts for an entire spare engine just in case something else went wrong along the way in 2020 that could not be quickly repaired on the road. Yes, building a spare engine is a huge and costly undertaking (don’t ask), but I had plenty of time to contemplate this while me and my broken crankshaft sat on the side of a very lonely road in Nowheresville Kansas. Even though I planned to continue my centennial ride in 2020 with a new crankshaft installed in my otherwise original 1919 engine, I felt like I needed better backup plans. I mean it’s not like you can just stop at a local motorcycle shop and pick up Henderson parts, let alone come up with a quick fix for a 100-year-old sheared crankshaft. This is how the spare engine “lightbulb moment” came to be.
In February 2020, I ordered another brand-new crankshaft (identical to the new crankshaft now in the Red One) and a new reproduction “oil pan.” On Henderson four-cylinder engines, the aluminum oil pan is cast with internal baffles that manage oil distribution and engine lubrication without an oil pump, and it also constitutes a key part of the engine case structure. This is to say the Henderson oil pan is a very unique design. Fortunately, Matt Smith at Antique Motorcycle Works in Montana was making a run of high-quality reproduction pans for 1919 models, so I ordered one for my spare engine project.
I wanted no doubt about finishing my now-delayed-until-2020 centennial ride, or even any other trip after that. But, apart from personal tragedies, COVID slowed everything down (people, parts, supply chains, and so on), so cancelling my plan to resume the ride in 2020, while regretful, was unavoidable. Things seemed to simmer down by mid-2021, so I settled on a new plan to resume the ride in 2022. Even though I felt pretty good about my existing engine finishing the 2022 ride without major failure, I still wanted to take that new “spare engine” along in the trailer. Again, I wanted no doubt about finishing, whatever it took, as there might not be opportunity for a third attempt.
Justin Case
So the folks at 4th Coast Fours began a complete “build list” to identify, locate, and acquire parts to build an entirely new engine for me that I could swap into the Red One if needed. I named this new engine project: Justin Case.
But things always seem to take longer than expected, and custom building a 100-year-old engine from scratch is no small feat. By the time I left Kansas in 2022 to complete my centennial continuation ride, Justin Case was unfortunately still “in progress,” mostly as a growing parts list. Thankfully I finished up that ride all the way to San Francisco without any significant engine glitches.
As the calendar clicked into 2025, while the Justin Case project had matured, it was still far from complete. I realized that I wasn’t getting any younger and my motorcycle riding days were becoming finite. More than ever before I felt like, if I went through all the planning, logistical hurdles, and commitments required for long distance rides, I certainly wanted peace of mind that I could enjoy such rides to completion. The days of being sidelined and committing to “next time” aren’t as certain anymore. I shared this sentiment with Mark Hill and asked him what it would take to put Justin Case on the front burner to get it up and running ASAP.
By late 2025, the final pieces of “unobtainium” (principally the four custom-made pistons and rings seen at the top of this update) were nearing delivery and progress was thankfully picking up. When I get a bit of spare time this Spring, I am going to put together a video of the build process and work done since 2020 to get Justin Case from the “drawing board” to a running engine, and perhaps even installed in the Red One.
In the meantime, I thought you would appreciate video of a major milestone. Last week, Loring Hill at 4th Coast sent me a video of the first start of Justin Case on a test-stand, conveying “he’s alive!” I added the video to my collection here: |
