# Navy Bicycles



## rwdfresno (Jan 13, 2015)

So, what's the word on bikes being used in the Navy. Has there ever been any officially sourced USN bicycles of any era? I saw this one on the net and it looks cool, but I have no idea it's authenticity. https://oldbike.wordpress.com/1940s-columbia-ww2-u-s-navy-mens-bicycle/ Does anyone have any pictures of bicycles in Navy service, either officially or unofficially sourced?

thanks,
Ryan


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## Aerocycle36 (Jan 13, 2015)

It has a wald stem, the headset looks to be from the 1970's and the rear hub appears to be the same as what was found in 1960's Schwinns.


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## baronvoncatania (Jan 14, 2015)

I don't have info on this bike, but I suspect it has newer parts and the color combo is puzzling, why have the cranks painted olive drab if the rest of the bike is grey?. Also in the military when anything was painted in drab, or grey, it was ALL painted. Not just the frame but EVERYTHING. Even the headset, and fender rivets.


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## johan willaert (Jan 14, 2015)

baronvoncatania said:


> Also in the military when anything was painted in drab, or grey, it was ALL painted. Not just the frame but EVERYTHING. Even the headset, and fender rivets.




Actually this wasn't the case, at least not upon leaving the factory... Plenty of surviving Original bikes confirm this...

Columbia did make bicycles for the USN during WW2, similar to the one in the auction which is not all correct.


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## johan willaert (Jan 14, 2015)




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## baronvoncatania (Jan 14, 2015)

Hi Johan

I'm aware that Columbia made bikes for the navy. What I said was, it makes no sense to paint the cranks olive drab, and the frame haze grey.

And why would the factory or the navy paint the bearing cups black, and then leave the goose neck grey? It doesn't make sense.

There are too many inconsistances, OD would not have been on the same bike as navy grey.



johan willaert said:


> Actually this wasn't the case, at least not upon leaving the factory... Plenty of surviving Original bikes confirm this...
> 
> Columbia did make bicycles for the USN during WW2, similar to the one in the auction which is not all correct.


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## the tinker (Jan 14, 2015)

*Ship Yard  Pearl Harbor*

In 1970 the navy yard at Pearl Harbor Hawaii had at least 25 bikes for the shipyard workers to ride around the shipyard on.  It made their job easier as the ships were spread out in various parts of the yard.  I think they were Schwinns but I  may be wrong. they were all full balloon tire  bikes and all had large baskets on the front. they were all painted red or green, and looked like they were painted several times.  I think these bikes were from the late 40s.  They had one large bike rack they would be parked in every night. I recall one of my pals  (He was drunk) taking off on one for a joy ride.  One of my buddies bought a real nice 65  GTO convert. We were driving through the yards about to leave the base, had the top down of course,and my pal hit one of the yard workers with the passenger front fender.    that old guy went flying off that bike and onto the grass. the bikes rear fender was smashed.
My pal Jerry who was driving yelled "SORRY BUB!"  and we kept going cause we had to get some beers. .......hope the old guy was ok.
It would be interesting if the U.S. Navy still provides bikes for the shipyard workers.


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## Jeff54 (Jan 14, 2015)

Yup albeit I don't remember the colors but, them old clunkers were there in the mid 70's too.

And that brings us to da point,, da navy has bikes all over the globe, it would not be surprising to have newer bikes too.

most are inside of da ship yards, and there's some at various ports fer da dummies to get around on. Me were da lucks-ski kine, back in da day,  cause da gives me da ships truck when getting around otherwise, I'd be able to ID them in 70's too.


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## milbicycleman (Jan 14, 2015)

I have a 1970's/80's Worksman that was used as a base bike.


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## rwdfresno (Jan 14, 2015)

I know that Columbia adverts aren't always the best historical record as far as what was actual done in practice. The Columbia Compax "paratrooper" bike being an example of that. Also, again, using the advertisement and the life magazine cover as a guide it looks like the bars and head badge are chrome. The cover picture shows a lot of chrome but that may be an off the shelf bicycle I'm not sure. The Compax on Johan's fine site shows what looks to be mostly dark perhaps black with the exception of the head badge but the Compax may not be a good example of what the standard Navy bicycle was. Is there any official word as to what the black out methodology was? Johan, you mention that there is some evidence one way or another way. Also curious about color on these. As someone who has spent time on a Navy base or two, I can validate that they paint almost anything gray or yellow at some point. I'm curious though how you would expect them to come from factory as well as any picture or evidence of them being painted otherwise.  

Thank you,
Ryan


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## GTs58 (Jan 14, 2015)

The title:

1940s Columbia WW2 U.S. Navy Men’s Bicycle


1940s World War Two U.S. Navy Columbia Bicycle

Totally Restored


 Bendix red band coaster hub, chrome Wald stem, Schwinn Exerciser seat etc. And when did they ever use a set of bars from a cycle truck on a lightweight. Totally restored my asp.


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## Aerocycle36 (Jan 14, 2015)

Bendix red band coaster hub, chrome Wald stem, Schwinn Exerciser seat etc. And when did they ever use a set of bars from a cycle truck on a lightweight. Totally restored my asp.[/QUOTE]

I agree with everything, except those aren't Cycletruck bars. All of those Olive drab Torrington bars that are getting passed around as Cycletruck bars are actually "M-38 Columbia Westfield" bars. I've bought dozens of them from a supplier in Ohio and they would always be wrapped up in bundles of either 4 or 5 bars and each bundle had a label on them identifying them. The geometry of the M-38 bars is different than Cycletruck bars, they are close but if you do a side by side comparison, you'll see a big difference. Are they correct for this bike? I don't know, but the age and the manufacturer is the same...


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## johan willaert (Jan 15, 2015)

Maybe it's a language thing, English not being my mother tongue, but I referred to the point that was made that on any Military bike, everything would have been painted the same color, either Olive Drab or Navy Gray.
But I see now that reference was being made that one wouldn't find a mix of Gray and OD painted parts on one bike.
I do not have much experience on Navy bikes, but my original finish 1942 Huffman Army issue bike clearly has parts that were not painted OD at the factory. I assume bikes manufactured for Navy use would have been similar with some parts not being painted at all.
That being said I do agree that once it was maintained in the unit, or when a civilian bike was put to Military use, it could have had everything repainted...
Just wanted to clear that up.

Back to the original question... If the US Navy was issued Military contract bikes like the ones I show on the 1945 Columbia ad, would they have had a special series frame number, similar to the Army MG series???

The Compax in Navy use shown on my website was clearly a civilian bike pressed into service as described in the picture caption...

Johan


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## the tinker (Jan 15, 2015)

Milbicycleman , Thanks for posting the photos of your yard bike.  the actual military lock is accurate!  The sailors would "borrow" the workers bikes when left unattended and ride off with them to be funny. It is amazing you have one of these.  I spent considerable time in the philabelphia naval yard but I never noticed any bikes.
As far as color goes, the yard bikes although owned by the government, the workers were under civilian management and could paint their bikes whatever they wanted.    It is true the U.S.N. did order almost everything that was painted in dark or light grey color.    That being said, other then specific requests everything came grey, and if altered would be done later by the command.
As far as military bikes used during the 60s and 70s  I never saw any, but I am sure it would be perfectly correct to paint them any color you wanted, as the sailors and even the officers had a rebellious attitude to the command and would do things to individualize things to protest , or sort of "stick it in the eye " of the command.    Certain divisions within a particular command would paint over the grey painted items large or small, in any color they wanted.  My  Repair division painted all our tools pink . the command was not happy with this.  It was not uncommon to find "peace" stickers affixed or drawn on military equipment .  Allthis was done in protest to the war, and in support for the changes that Admiral Zumwalt was trying to bring about in the U.S. Navy at that time.  thanks for sharing your yard bike!


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## baronvoncatania (Jan 15, 2015)

Johan

Can you send me a link to your website?  Thanks for your input.


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## johan willaert (Jan 15, 2015)

Here you go: http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm


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## Wing Your Heel (Jan 15, 2015)

If you see a bike on one of my websites that you have questions about, why not just ask me?!

oldbike.wordpress.com is my original bicycle website from 2007 that was superseded when I set up www.Oldbike.eu 

I didn't rate it myself so i resold it. I don't know who restored it. Probably typical of most 'restorations' by military chaps in UK with little or no experience of bicycles. They just slap paint on decent unrestored original BSA Airbornes to park in the back of their jeeps. You should see some of the crap that is 'best in show' at War and Peace!
But the buyer loved it


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## milbicycleman (Jan 15, 2015)

@ the tinker Your welcome! Thanks for sharing stories about your time in the service and the history about my bike.


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## milbicycleman (Jan 16, 2015)

@the tinker I was wondering where you were stationed? I think my bike came out of the Philadelphia Navel Yard?


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## the tinker (Jan 16, 2015)

Milbicycleman      The navy damage control school.  It was at far west end of the navy yard, where all the mothballed WW2 ships were moored.  there was no activity , or anything being done in that part of the yards.
It was really only storage for row after row of old destroyers, cruisers, and submarines.   
After i posted to you i thought about it some , and I think the reason i never noticed any bikes there was because it was so deserted. At that time repairs and deactivations  seemed to be happening on the south side if i remember correctly. this would be early 1970.  Those bikes at pearl had been painted over many times .maybe the salt air?  There was no deactive ships at pearl when i was homeported there.   lots of work being done , and i saw those bikes all the time.  My buddy really did smash into that old  guy riding his bike. , I can still see him flying over the curb.  your bike brings back the memories!    May I ask how you got it?   I remember  once a week they did let civilians into the surplus storage to bid on stuff. they had all kinds of neat stuff there, wouldnt surprise me if they had bikes.    your bike would look good with a navy decal on it!


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## 37schwinn (Jan 16, 2015)

Here is an old auction for a WWII Navy bicycle (supposedly). From Proxibid. I Can't get the picture to load but this seems to be the picture attached to it. 

Problems of course, not a Schwinn as per the description, and Schwinn in the military? Still debatable anyway. I'd still like to see the original pic if it's not this one in attaching. 
Here is the auction description:
US Navy WWII "Delivery" Bicycle
This Schwinn produced 1942 US Navy WWII "Delivery" Bicycle weas one of 10,000 delivered to the US Military, primarily the US Navy. It was a workhorse with a 150 lb payload carrying basket and was used extensively in the Hampton Roads area. This original example is in beautiful shape.

A link to the old auction :  https://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=3140&aid=84539&lid=21082528


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## milbicycleman (Jan 17, 2015)

the tinker Thats really cool! Sounds like a fun time, thanks for sharing. I was at a military surplus warehouse and spotted it in a corner. The owner said it was bought directly from a base. Yeah it would! I was thinking of painting it OD or navy grey but I probably won't since it is original.


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## milbicycleman (Jan 17, 2015)

That bike from the auction is a Japanese bicycle from the 20's or 30's or later. It was a copy of the Raleigh "Bobby" bike.


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## johan willaert (Jan 21, 2015)

Found this in my files

The USN bicycles were ordered through Contract #130xsy6277 for a total of $61,000, completed May 44


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## Sarg1969 (Aug 24, 2016)




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## Sarg1969 (Aug 24, 2016)




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## Sarg1969 (Aug 24, 2016)

Heres a early Walthour and Hood motobike that I was told was used by the Navy either at the port or on the deck of some large vessel.  It still retains part of the "Navy Service" decal on the top tube.  Missing the seat,grips and the lens on the Zeiss light.  Anyone ever seen or heard of one like it?


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## Sarg1969 (Aug 26, 2016)

Here's another military used Sears "7" Spaceliner.  I aquired it from the original owner whom was a jet mechanic on Robins AFB, Ga.  He used it to strap his small tool kit to the rear rack to service planes on the tarmack.  Still has the Robins AFB sticker on it.


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