What kind of pre-war bike is my Grandpa riding?

[Professor72]

I recently found a picture of my grandpa Joe on a bike when he was a kid. Judging by his age of about 10-12, I approximate the year to be from about 1936-1939 in Altoona, Pa. at the time. My Gr. Grandpa was a master machinist at the PRR, so he made a decent working wage. I've looked and looked and can't ID this bike, but being ignorant of all things pre-war bike doesn't help... Kinda looks like a prewar Schwinn World Motorbike, but the forks don't have truss rods. Note the klaxon horn and delta light with battery can. Anyone got a clue what this is? I thought it would be cool to remake it.

FYI- this photo is copyrighted to me. Do not copy, repost, or distribute in any format printed or electronic.

 

[ChimeraCycle]

20" wheels, yah?

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

 

[Professor72]

I would guess 20-24" size.

 

[Jarod24]

Looks like it has a sweet heart sprocket. Almost everyone used a sprocket similar though, so that doesn't really narrow it down. Maybe the fork style can be narrowed down

 

[Professor72]

I was thinking the forks look like Shelby forks from that era or DP Harris, but haven't found one with the same frame or sprocket.

 

[Jarod24]

I've never seen a Harris with a sweet heart or fork like that. But Shelby is definitely a possibility or even Dayton/huffman

 

[Professor72]

The fork is the Hangup for me. The Rest of the bike looks just likes schwinn excelsior or motorbike from the 1930's, but the fork looks like the Shelby or DP Harris fork. Did schwinn makes a local brand bike without the common schwinn truss rods?

 

[Jarod24]

Dayton and Colson also made motorbike style bikes with straight lower bar. And both used sweet heart sprockets

 

[rrtbike]

That is a VERY cool picture!