Originally Posted by
chaadster
Ha ha...no, not really. I saw one once at a bike show in Detroit, and was just shocked that it seemed to be made like a 1950s bike, probably with iron salvaged from scrapped battleships! This was years ago, but it seemed to have no standard parts on it, and was just so old and low tech, I couldn’t believe it was a new bike, nor imagine who would choose it or for what purpose. I think the chain is from a ‘39 farm tractor PTO grist mill attachment...you know, in case the river runs dry.
It
exactly is a 1950's bike. An industrial 1950's bike, that you'd use to get around a big factory or a shipyard, where it'd be a really long walk (and they hadn't invented golf carts yet)
Their 2-wheelers are built extra-heavy to put up with the abuse of being ridden and tossed around in non bike-friendly environments, and not needing much maintenance. You can actually buy them through the Grainger supply catalog.
They also make a couple different flavors of 3- and 4-wheel 'cart' bikes for carrying tools, mail or parts. They've been around for over 100 years, but they only started marketing the two-wheelers 'recreationally' for the whole made-in-the-USA 'old-school' niche.