Reynolds ND Motorcycle club

[camsaure]

Reynolds motorcycle club.jpg Here is a picture of the Reynolds ND Motorcycle Club taken approx. 1917 in front of my Great Grandfathers house. I know the names all the riders and I do remember a few of these guys and some of the stories that they had to tell. How about identifying the bikes?

[exeric]

Great picture, camsaure. Can anyone identify the 3rd bike in from the left?

[exeric]

That 3rd bike in the picture that camsaure posted was driving me a bit nutty (not hard to do). I cropped, and enhanced it in Photoshop and I'm thinking it's a Harley-Davidson. I believe the lighting on the fork made it look non-Harley, and that shiny tube thing that looks like an M-M muffler could be an acetylene bottle. Also, there looks to be a clutch lever in a quadrant by the rider's leg. . . Don't know what that is. Curious what others think.

[camsaure]

Could be a Harley, the only easy one to ID is the Excelsior on the left. I am pretty sure the second is an Indian. It belonged to Joe Renners whose first bike was a 1914 Harley single that he traded in 1917 for an Indian. He then went off to war in WW1 where he rode a Harley with a bigshot lieutenant in the sidecar as he put it. He could still fit into his uniform in the 1970s that he wore in the Memorial Day Parades.

[GTD]

Camsaure
My take on that second from the left bike differs from yours.
Looking closely at the front fenders of the second and third machines, I see a strong similarity.
Their lack of braces forward of the forks and the loop of the thin low front brace at the hub matches early Harley Davidson.
Compare to the attached pic.
The pic is too blurry to see details at the upper end of the front forks but we can see the acetylene tank at the handlebars on the second bike.
The absence of a handlebar mounted tank on the third bike gives support that the silver item mounted low on that bike being for its lighting.
Somewhat like the tank shown on the Flying Merkel pic.

I see the three machines on the right of the pic as Indians.
I believe this because of the curve of the downtube at the front of the frame, the front fender and fork suspension and the vertical control rod being on the right side of the bike.

[camsaure]

You could be very well right. It could be his 1914 Harley single that he owned before his 1917 Indian. It is too bad that this picture is blurry.

[duffeycycles]

Looks like a '14 HD single to me