leilin

A brown bike, the only word left on the bike is Browny, only frame and fork, I can tell it is light, found it from trash.

lei lin

Noah Scape

It could be a Browning (the gun maker) bike. I see these around once in awhile. I remember them being sold in sporting goods stores in the US during the bike boom. My boss at a job I had in high school had one. European built, I think.

lotek 

my brother moved into an apt and found a Pioneer amplifier
and mens Browning bike. It was a serious POS iirc (look AOLESE)
so it may not have been same model as Noah's boss had.

marty

luker

lei lin, you need to put up a picture. There are various bikes that might fit this description...btw, the only Brownings I ever saw were serious POS's. But I never saw a European one, I don't think.

alanbikehouston

I was looking at a 1973 catalog for Browning ten speed bikes recently. A generic lugged steel frame, made in Belgium. A nice mix of Japanese and French components. It seemed to "slot" somewhere in the "mid" market where Schwinn was aiming its original imported Le Tour around 1974.

I could not figure out WHY the Browning Arms company would want import bikes from Europe, when it would have no network of bike dealers. Noah Scape's post suggests Browning already HAD a dealership network. Every town in America, and most villages, had a sporting goods store that sold Browning's firearms. So, some Browning executive must have thought: "Hey, we can sell bikes through our gun shop network....a fella can walk in, buy a gun, and ride home on his new bike".

Had Browning been more successful, it might have opened up some whole new sport that involving the combination of ten speed bikes and shotguns.

Rabid Koala

I recall seeing advertisements in Bicycling magazine for Mossberg (another gun manufacturer) bicycles, but didn't know Browning did the same thing.

Strange!

Poguemahone

Heck, I recall seeing ads for Browning Bikes on the backs of comic books... always a sure sign of bike quality, only the best makers showed their wares on the back of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos or Uncle Scrooge... speaking of which, if anyone wants me to start a thread with scans of comic book ads for bikes in it, I shall...

Rabid Koala

I do I do I do!

I love bike ads, even if they are from comic books.

Sluggo

And don't forget that A-D-Puch also made (or makes) firearms, though they never tried to sell bikes and guns through the same dealers, as far as I know.

And shimano makes fishing reels. The ride-shoot-ride-fish triathlon. Definite possibilities here for the next summer olympix.

Poguemahone

And Peugeot made peppermills. A Ride and Iron Chef competition, maybe.

ettsn

Campagnolo makes corkscrews. Wine ride?

Pompiere

Is it that much of a stretch for a gun maker to use their barrel making equipment to make frame tubing? Especially if they have excess capacity. The inside of a shotgun barrel is not just a straight draw, much like a double butted bike frame.