ACE 1923 1265cc 4 cyl IOE 3602

ACE 1923 1265cc 4 cylinder IOE frame # 4389 engine # B 6521

William Henderson created the fabulous ACE after he left the Excelsior Company in 1919. With growing discontent he had witnessed that the Excelsior engineers added more weight to the four between 1917, the year of the Henderson takeover, and 1919, without really working on better engine design or tuning. So he left and with financial backing of bicycle maker Max Sladkin he designed a faster, lighter and more graceful machine than the Henderson had grown into. The ACE was an instant success, so much even that the company went almost bankrupt from a shortage of cash to finance the enormous growth in production.
The coast-to-coast run that “Cannonball” Baker made in September 1922 gave a great boost to Ace sales. Baker smashed the existing record and made the run from Los Angeles to New York in six days, twenty-two hours and fifty-two minutes. He covered 3,332 miles ( 5362 km) and, as the factory advertised with “(….) perfect motor operation, without touching the engine except to clean two plugs and adjust the tappets once, with an average of 48 miles per gallon.”

William Henderson was tragically killed in December 1922 when he collided with a car when road testing one of his machines. Arthur Lemon, his former trainee who had grown into a very competent designer, left his post at the Excelsior works to become chief engineer and designer with the ACE Company. Sales were very strong in 1923, the more because the ACE’s selling price had gone down from $435 to $ 335. Later on it became clear that there had been some serious miscalculations: throughout 1923 most machines had been sold at a severe loss, a blow from which the company never really recovered.

One of the strong points of the Ace is its lubrication system: the oil is stored in the deep aluminium sump, but the splash oiling occurs in oil troughs located immediately under the crankshaft. This pool is maintained and replenished by the oil pump. The oil in the base of the sump is only maintained as a cooler reservoir of oil to draw from – the externally finned sump assisting with the cooling.
Noticeable is also the braking system: the stopping power is provided by two contracting band brakes, both on the rear wheel, and operated by a toe pedal above the right footboard and a heel pedal above the left.
The machine we present here has spent her entire life in The Netherlands as part of several private collections over the years. She is an older restoration in good overall condition.