Indian Four

The Indian Four was a four-cylinder motorcycle built by the Indian Motocycle Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1928 to 1942. It descended from the Ace, which Indian acquired together with the assets of the Ace Motor Corporation in 1927, and it was sold for one year as the Indian Ace before becoming the Indian 401 in 1928, a development by the former Ace chief engineer Arthur O. Lemon. The 402 of 1929 gained a stronger twin-downtube frame based on the 101 Scout and a five-bearing crankshaft in place of the Ace's three-bearing one. The Four stayed in production through the Great Depression, when demand for luxury motorcycles was low, and in 1936 and 1937 it carried an unpopular upside-down cylinder head with the valve positions reversed, before the original layout returned in 1938. In 1940 it received plunger rear suspension and Indian's large skirted fenders. Civilian production ended in 1942 and the Four did not return after the war.