Is this bike really off topic? It's vintage. And it's probably relatively lightweight by the standards of the day. I like Raoul's speculation that it might have been the product of a post-war aircraft worker. Remember the boom in CNC stuff (albeit mostly for off-topic ATBs) upon the close of the cold war and all those idle aerospace plants in SoCal? And a bike called a Trimble from the same period? Bored/unemployed aircraft workers and aerospace materials can surely be a boon to the development of the bicycle!
Kurt Sperry Bellingham WA USA
>O.K. , you have my attention .
>
>What a fantastic machine ! It would look just right being ridden by a
>hero from a Jules Verne , or an H. G. Wells , novel !
>
>My first thought as I read your description was of a "monocoque"
>road-racing motorbike frame , made of riveted sheet aluminum , and sold
>around 1971 .
>
>That motorbike frame was done with very-very many small "Pop-Rivets" ( a
>registered brand name by the way . . . ) .
>
>But , the mystery bicycle is certainly authentically older than c. 1971 .
>
>And the idea of a bored ( or unemployed ) aircraft worker might be a very
>good idea !
>
>Here's a tidbit of information purely for inspiration - one of the items
>my grandfather was proud of , in his collection of neat-old-stuff , was a
>cigarette lighter machined from exotic aircraft aluminum , right around
>1946 , in Wichita , Kansas . As a major aircraft producing city ,
>Wichita Kansas was full of the finest materials , the finest machine tools
>, and many qualified people , all sitting almost idle , at the very end
>of WW II . The U.S. government not only scrapped huge numbers of actual
>aircraft , but also large amounts of raw materials , immediately after WW
>II .
>
>I wonder if this bicycle might have been made right around 1946 or so ?
>
>Darn shame that the front fork got bent . Could probably be carefully
>repaired . I wonder what might have been on the front fork :
>
>light ?
>
>front rack ?
>
>extra stays for reinforcement ?
>
> Raoul Delmare
> Marysville Kansas
>
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