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by Dan Hartman Last September, I wrote in my From the Hip column about the Excelsior-Henderson motorcycles and the fact that they promised us production bikes in the fourth quarter of 1998. I asked if you remembered the song "Mrs. Robinson", by Simon and Garfunkle. There's a line that goes, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" Well I still have that same line running through my mind. I have seen no production motorcycles coming off the line in Belle Plaine, Minnesota as yet. Then on April 6th the Star-Tribune ran an article in the Business Section of the paper about Excelsior-Henderson and the fact that there still was no production. The song came back to me. The company reported a net loss for their 1998 fourth quarter of $8.13 million. It was also reported that in 1999 Excelsior-Henderson anticipated greater losses than expected and that they needed more cash perhaps more than $10 million to move into production at this time. The company said that vendor problems led to the production delays. Analysts estimated that Excelsior-Henderson will lose $14 million to $20 million in 1999, more than double earlier estimates. The company stock, which sold in February for $10.75 per share, fell to less than $6.00 per share with the news. I must admit I was not too surprised by the article. Startup companies often have cash flow problems. Under capitalization is not uncommon for a startup company either. Excelsior-Henderson is not unusual in that they are under capitalized at this point in time. Vendor problems would be a good reason to have cash flow problems. After I read the article in the Star-Tribune, I called my broker to talk about the stock price and whether it was still a good buy in the market. He thought that if you could hold onto the stock for a while (a few years) and if the motorcycle goes into production in 1999, the stock should go back up. He wasn't sure how high it would go, but that's the risk an investor takes. Who knows what will happen, but it sounds logical. If you had money to lose, it could be a good investment. Don't take my word for it, call your broker. The very next day, April 7th, in the Star-Tribune there appeared an article about Polaris and their Victory motorcycle. They had announced the shipping of their 2000th motorcycle and were on track to meet their 1999 goal of 5000 bikes. Of course the newspaper compared the problems of Excelsior-Henderson with the success of Polaris. It's not hard to do. After all, Polaris announced its new bike sometime after Excelsior-Henderson and is now in full production while Excelsior-Henderson is not. Keep in mind through, Polaris has the existing plants to produce the new bike by retooling their snowmobile operations. Not that it's easy to retool a plant, but it's faster than starting from scratch. You really can't compare the two companies. It's not fair to Excelsior-Henderson. Both have or will have great products. My problem is that I can't get that damn song out of my mind. Every time I drive through Belle Plaine, Minnesota and look to the east at the Excelsior-Henderson building, the song comes back to me. "Where have you gone, Excelsior-Henderson?" So Excelsior-Henderson do me a favor. Please get your motorcycle into production. It will be great to see. Ride safe and be free.   M.M.M.