This is a picture of my grandfather, who as a captain in the Mt. Lebanon (PA) police department rode a motorbike.  He actually had to supply his own bike, as far as I understand it.  I'm trying to figure out what model bike that is.  All I know is that:

1) He bought a bike in 1917-or-so.  My uncle (his son) says it was a 4-cylinder Indian motorcycle.  I'm pretty sure 4-cyclinders were not around then, at least not common.  Also, my uncle knows nothing about bikes, and he tends to embellish stories and fill in gaps in his memory with confidently stated lies.  Great storyteller, bad historian.  Still, it does look like an Indian.

3) Also, the photo is probably from ~1925.  So whatever he bought in 1917 might have been replaced by the time of the photo.




Any of you moto-historians out there offer some thoughts?

You are correct about the Indian 4s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Four

That bike doesn't have the leaf spring front end that seems to be standard on that era of Indian.

Googling 1917 motorcycle images yields precious few bikes with any front brake at all, and none that large.
1917 era tires are also quite a bit slimmer.

1925 was key.

Like this, 1925 Harley Davidson JE:



Article on that bike, here:
http://classic-harley.info/?p=913

It mentions that it's a later model front brake, '28 or so.

A bit surprising that the folklore was it was an Indian, AFAIK there was not much love lost between HD and Indian marques in that era. 

^^   

Nice detective work 

Wow, excellent work.  I'm very grateful! 

Quote from: Speeddog on June 23, 2014, 12:07:41 AM
A bit surprising that the folklore was it was an Indian, AFAIK there was not much love lost between HD and Indian marques in that era. 

Perhaps the 1917 bike was an Indian but was replaced by HD due to peer pressure. 

I have no knowledge of early motorcycles to offer, but just wanted to say, that is a super cool pic of your grandfather.

Quote from: pitbull on June 23, 2014, 12:19:41 PM
I have no knowledge of early motorcycles to offer, but just wanted to say, that is a super cool pic of your grandfather.

Thanks.  He passed before I was born so I never got to meet him.  Based on pics and a few stories, seemed pretty cool.  Apparently, he was involved in a shoot out that was re-enacted for a tv series in the 60s called LAWBREAKERS with Lee Marvin.  I found a DVD and ordered it.

I had thought it might be a Henderson, as almost all of their motorcycles were inline 4s and they were popular with police departments.   But it doesn't look like they had front brakes on their 1917 models.
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Motorcycle