Canadian army use of CCM bikes

Submitted by portdalhousie on Tue, 04/28/2020 - 14:02

Some time back, John Williamson mentioned that during the Second World War, the Canadian military used some CCM bikes painted in Olive Drab, or some other military paint colour.  I was wondering if anyone has ever seen or heard of a surviving bike with this paint job.  These were certainly civilian bikes prior to 1944, and economy "War Grade" models towards the end of the war.  Any information would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.  --David Webb 

 

3 Comments

Submitted by jdwillia on Wed, 04/29/2020 - 11:27.

Hello David,

Years ago I saw some pictures that were posted on a military website showing a CCM bike that was in Quebec that was olive drab. It was basically a standard CCM large frame men's bike with a metal head badge (Rambler?). Even the head badge was painted in olive drab. Although someone could have done this post-factory, it looked original. I think that the pictures were taken off the web some time ago. I may have printed them off at the time and I will look to see if I have them.

John Williamson

Submitted by jdwillia on Wed, 04/29/2020 - 13:53.

I found the original posting but I could not bring up the pictures. Perhaps you can do this using "way back machine", or something that shows the web as it was in previous years. It is at http://maplefeafup.net/showthread.php?t=3513 - the original post was from 2005.

John Williamson

Submitted by portdalhousie on Sat, 05/02/2020 - 21:31.

Thanks John!  I think I recall seeing the image of that bike at the time.  It would be interesting to find more references or examples of CCM bikes used by the military.  British bikes were clearly issued overseas, but I would think that Canadian bases, notably airfields involved in the Commonwealth Air Training Scheme, would have had Canadian bikes.