Originally Posted by
divineAndbright
I dont think the "Schwinn of Canada" is all that fitting, at least not in a more "modern era". Schwinn made much more higher quality models - paramount, superior, volare, and not to mention all the 80s jobs like circuit, tempo, peloton, etc. All ccm had was the tour du canada, I dont think the silver ghost and concorde and mistral really fall into the same sorta line. Maybe if ccm stuck around longer.. then again they went bankrupt for a reason, they kinda focused on department store stuff.
They're similar to Schwinn because they date back to the the 1890's and dominated their home markets for the better part of the century. CCM did make very high quality, performance track/6 day bikes from the 20's to the 40's in the form of CCM Flyers. Many were custom made by an in house shop run by Doc Morton. There was an Australian post card of Major Taylor on a CCM Massey Harris fixed wheel on ebay but it went real high. As you say, quality post-war CCM race bikes were few and far between but they certainly made a lot of rugged roadsters, tandems, delivery bikes and 3 speed utility bikes.
There's a great 1918 CCM catalogue here for download or use the online reader...
http://www.archive.org/details/bicyc...pair00canauoft