Bikernet is sponsoring the Sturgis Museum this year and we offered to feature one of their display bikes each month on Bikernet. We are promoting the Sturgis Museum for several reasons. Our boss is in the Hall of Fame. We don’t know why, but what the hell, he’s old.
The Museum represents a great deal for the town of Sturgis and the motorcycle industry. They would love to be able to expand their facility into the lot next door. The Sturgis Museum represents motorcycling and is the home of motorcycling year round in Sturgis. 
Their vision is to continue as a world-class museum offering comprehensive and educational exhibits and showcasing rare and unusual motorcycles significant to our history and our sport.
Sturgis is synonymous with motorcycles and the people who love them. Visitors come all year looking for motorcycle-related businesses and attractions – and they get a piece of motorcycling history when they visit Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame.
In a joint effort the Museum’s Board of Directors, the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club, local students and members of the Sturgis community gathered on March 10th, 2001 to scrape, sand, and paint the old church building next to the Pyramid Bar. Gene and Nancy Flagler, owners of the church, determined the rent should be a whopping $1.00 a month, helping to make the Museum’s first and most critical year a little easier to manage financially.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame opened its doors to the public on June 1, 2001. Local and national collectors loaned the new Museum a selection of vintage and rare V-twin and metric motorcycles, offering visitors a glimpse into the magnificent world of two wheels. Actually, our boss, Bandit loaned them a 1946 Knucklehead built by Milwaukee Iron.
After only a year in business, the City of Sturgis was so impressed with the museum’s progress that it offered the old Post Office on the corner of legendary Main Street & Junction Avenue as the museum’s new home. With financial support from the State of South Dakota and many others, the museum was able to open the doors on its present location in 2002.
The Museum has continued to grow, opening its lower level in August, 2003. With several exhibit rooms and an increasingly impressive selection of unique motorcycles, the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum offers a world-class experience for visitors and has been listed as one of the 10,000 Places to See Before You Die by author Patricia Schultz.
Today, the Museum is open year round, seven days a week. Summer months are the busiest as people flock to the famous motorcycle mecca, culminating in August during the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Motorcycles and exhibits are changed on a regular basis offering repeat visitors something fresh and new each time they stop in.
This is our first opportunity to highlight a rare and unusual museum motorcycle on the pages of Bikernet. This is the only V8 Henderson in the world. Built by “Mr. Henderson,” Carl Vandre of Denver, Colorado.
Carl fooled around with Hendersons most of his life. And while Carl liked to keep ’em just like they came out of the factory, he wasn’t averse to a few improvements…
Carl learned how to operate and program a CNC milling machine with the help of his son-in-law and his grandson.
Carl was an A/P Mechanic in World War II and worked on several planes from B-17’s through B-29’s.
This engine has a Henderson crankshaft, with articulated connecting rods, two Henderson cam shafts. Carburetion is by typical Zenith TX4 carburetors. Bosch magnetos supply the ignition for the 8 Henderson DeLuxe cylinders. Henderson clutch, flywheel, tranny, lower engine case and engine mounts provide the basis for the V8. Aircraft aluminum was used, all parts were machined and assembled with socket head bolts, no welding! There are no modifications of any kind to the frame. Carl spent approximately 2000 hours in a 2-year span to complete this project.
This is an antique vehicle that is exciting to ride – without a front wheel brake special attention to traffic is a must!
When the bike was brought to the museum, it was attached to a sidecar frame because the bike was so heavy. Very few people would ride it without the sidecar frame attached.
This bike is on loan from the Carl and Dorothy Vandre Living Trust. We look forward to featuring rare Sturgis Museum bikes on a monthly basis. Luckily, his family has posted information on a website about Carl and this bike. You can find more info here: http://www.hendersonkj.com/carl-vandre/index.html
The Henderson motorcycle community lost a good friend recently. Carl Vandre passed away on February 7, 2008.
Over the years, Carl was responsible for keeping countless Hendersons on the road in this country and around the world. There wasn’t a part on a Henderson motorcycle that Carl couldn’t fix. And if a part was missing, he simply made a new one. He loved to talk, and gave advice to countless people from all over the world all you had to do was call Carl on the phone, and tell him your problem.
Carl was “Mr. Henderson,” there isn’t a person on this planet that knew more about the Henderson motorcycle than Carl Vandre. Carl is no longer with us, but the Hendersons he loved so much still are.
STURGIS MUSEUM 1925 V-8 HENDERSON TECH CHART
Configuration: 2.750 Bore x 3.500 Stroke = 163 cubic inches
Top end: Rods & upper side of the engine case were made from aircraft aluminum
Cams: Two cams running in different directions
Two magnetos : both run on their own cam shaft and both are connected to an arm system to the left handle grip for spark advance control as the original bike was set up.
Tachometer on the dash is off an old airplane that Carl flew at one time.
Crank case and Transmission: Bottom half of the case is original as is the transmission
Christine Paige Diers
Executive Director, Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame
605.347.2001
999 Main Street, Sturgis, SD 57785
fax 605.720.0632
www.sturgismuseum.com
