I've seen a couple of pre-WWI inline-fours by Pierce, really innovative for the time. They use large dia. tubing for the frame, the engine is a stressed-member, and the frame doubles as gas and oil reservoirs. Pierce was an offshoot of Pierce-Arrow automobiles, the best car manufactured in Buffalo NY. One of the best American racers of all-time, Phil Hill, was an expert on Pierce-Arrows, and he restored them and judged them.
The Excelsior-Henderson revival bike was in need of better, more-professional operators than the Hanlon brothers, apparently. Proof it could be done was the Polaris acquisition of Indian's rights, and then re-introducing them into the market, which caused them to close operations for their other brand, Victory.
Two brothers from Minnesota attempted to revive the great old American motorcycle manufacturer Excelsior Henderson. Here was what they brought in 1998.
www.motorcyclecruiser.com
The Excelsior-Henderson Super X was conceived in the boom years of the 1990s, but was unfortunately short-lived.
ridermagazine.com
Wipeout | Twin Cities Business An interesting interview with one of the Hanlon brothers.
Of the modern incantations, only Triumph and Indian have been able to grow their brands into a marketplace presence, sustainable over the long-run.
I've posted on here before about meeting the court-appointed receiver, the attorney who brokered the sale of Indian to Polaris. Ever-since Indian went out of business in 1953, there were numerous attempts to use the Indian name on everything from British motorcycles, to Italian minibikes [Indian Papoose!], and then just clothing and merchandise, not-even motorcycles! Floyd Clymer, a name familiar to older motorcycle enthusiasts, was an importer of various brands over the years to the USA. He made use of the Indian name for bikes not built in the USA, as 'Indians.' Around 1960, he imported Royal Enfields as 'Indians,' 700cc parallel-twins with American model names like Tomahawk, Apache, Westerner and Trailblazer. Not surprisingly, some of those names were later appropriated by other manufacturers for their offerings marketed in the USA [Suzuki, Triumph].
The history of the Indian motorcycle name gets a bit convoluted after the demise of the old company in 1953. Its last genuine model was the 80-inch (1,300cc) Chief.
ridermagazine.com
I had the predecessor [Triumph TR25W] to this Triumph Traliblazer 250cc [T25T], this is a 1971 Trailblazer, which in this design had a short production run.
