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Iver Johnson handguns from the 20s are marked "Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works".
Has anyone ever actually owned a cycle by this company? I've personally never seen one.
Jim

1909 catalog
http://www.oldbike.eu/iverjohnson/?page_id=87

Before I got into old guns I spent a fair bit of time in Chicopee as I did business with A.G Spalding, but mostly with their golf division Top Flite.

A.G. Spalding & Bros. 1895 Advert

Ah, I got my ps & qs mixed and I was actually thinking of D.S. Spaulding when I posted A.G. Spalding & Bros.


D.S. Spaulding, Cadena 23, Apartado 274, Mexico, D.F. - 1909(operation was in fully swing by Oktober 1888)
Cadena Street Nr. 23, P.O. Box 274 - Mexico City

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I grew up in a bicycle store.
Spoked my first wheels at 9.

I had the pleasure of destroying hundreds, perhaps thousands of bicycles. My father would buy entire warehouses of bicycles and parts to feed our rebuilding operations. Frames accumulate in warehouses. Ashtabula cranks were particularly sought after.

I worked on hundreds of bicycle wheels with wooden rims.

I stripped and repainted simple cruisers in batches of 10.

I never saw a bicycle frame tube made of any form of laminate.
Seamless steel, weld seamed steel, but never any form of twist, or croile'.
I have measured butted tubes (tubes stretched thin in their middles, but left thick where bending stresses accumulate) but never a tube looking anything like a shotgun barrel.

Have any of you ever seen an antique bicycle with laminate tubes?

I still remember the printing on the spoke boxes (double butted) in their 4 languages.
Spokes and Nipples
Eger Og Nippler
Spiechen und nipple
rayons et ecrous

I've had my Park truing stand for almost 45 years. One of my warehouses is a cycling time capsule of the 70's. Hell, I can remember rebuilding Sturmey-Archer and Shimano 3 speeds, and Sachs and New Departure 2 speeds. Chains were pretty well standardized by 1965.

Drew,
Bicycles were made by several U.K. gun makers,including Greener under the name of F. Greener and Co; F. Williams trading under the name, American Gun and Cycle works, and of course B.S.A.
As I see it,the gun trade in Birmingham had the technical, mechanical and manufacturing skills required to manufacture key components of the Bicycle. The enormous demand for bicycles in the Victorian /Edwardian era presented gun makers with a golden opportunity to diversify and expand their business. In many cases these enterprises were short lived..
B.S.A was the exception expanding to make, not only bicycles but splendid motor cycles and also a not very practical three wheel sports car.

Simson Suhl was B.S.A.'s mirror in Germany:

http://www.mz-und-simson.de/simson/history.htm

Simson - Fahrradfabrik

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I only buy and ride Schwinns. Got two of them pre-1970.

I have a nice Schwinn Tandem, Blue, all original. My wife likes to ride it with me. And an Orange Crate around somewhere.
And a Collegiate, Varsity, and Super Sport 10 speeds. I don't know why I hoard all that stuff.
Two of my kids can't even ride a bike! How bourgeois!

But has anyone ever seen laminate tubes on a bicycle?

I expect the explosive growth of cycling played a role in gun manufacturers efforts. Until Henry Ford got going anyway.

I'm going to back us up a bit. As virtually everyone on this forum knows the Iver Johnson Co. marked their Revolvers "Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works". I've handled dozens of inexpensive revolvers marked this way.
Has anyone ever seen a bicycle marked Iver Johnson? If so can you post a picture?
Jim