One will find that during wartime, companies that made high precision parts for non military applications would often re-tool for military production because they had the type of workforce to handle these demands.

Off the top of my head:

Singer Sewing Machine and Union Switch & Signal built M1911 handguns. (Singer's were limited production, and go for 10's of thousands of dollars on the collector market).

Westinghouse built Mosin-Nagant rifles for the Russians.

IBM, Saginaw Steering Gear, Standard Products, Rock-Ola, Underwood, National Postal Meter, Quality Hardware, and Inland (division of GM) built M1 carbines.

International Harvester built M1 Garands.

The Big Three auto manufacturers did trucks, tanks, and other assorted stuff.

Kaiser Steel built transport ships.

Some guy named Higgins (down in Louisiana?) developed the Higgins Boat that pretty much revolutionized getting an assault force landed on the beach.

And International Harvester made M1 Garands And National postal Meter made M1 Carbines

damn someone beat me to it

I think BSA made barrels for Sten guns but the piece was so simple that much of the rest of the gun was put together at auto body repair shops. Probably the same for the PIAT based on what they look like. I have seen what must have been an experimental No.4 rifle which had a floorplate, triggerguard, and other fittings apparently made from sheet metal on a press brake, not like the nicer stamped parts on Mausers and Springfields.

I don't know when Miyata started making rifled bikes but I was under the impression that it was some time after they left the gun business. I always thought that perhaps they were inspired by their gunmaking past but that was the extent of it.

Not at all sure but when they were making guns, I think the state of the art was probably to cut rifling, whereas the bike tubing was probably made by drawing a mandrel through the tubes, similar to more modern "button" rifling. I guess I don't know when they came out with the tubing, when button rifling started to supplant cut rifling, or when Miyata left the gun business, if they did at all, so my suspicion may not hold any water.

Some early versions of Sherman were powered by a fairly unique powerplant created by redesigning five Chrysler straight six engines to turn a single crankshaft.

GM Guide Lamp built M3 submachineguns with their knowledge of stamping lamp housings.

General Electric started making jet engines because they had experience with steam turbines.

Oh, yeah.... Ford Motor Co. built B24 Liberators on its' Willow Run assembly line.

Here's a rendering of the splines from the '86 catalog, courtesy of miyata catalogs.com:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_whtVpXkKwl...600/img100.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_whtVpXkKwl...600/img100.jpg

http://www.miyatacatalogs.com/2007/1...alog-1986.html

Ford designed a V12 which would compete with the Rolls-Royce Merlin. The Army Air Corps didn't buy it so they cut it down by 4 cylinders and put it into later Shermans. It later became a favorite of hot rodders. It had 1100 cubic inches and four valves per cylinder.

Yep; guns & bikes, bikes & guns, you really can’t separate ‘em…….I sure wish I had a picture of a monkey with a six shooter riding a Bianchi right now.

This thread has a serious side to it that I personally don’t like to see on this forum ‘cause it is my literary escape from deep historical thinking... Oh, the Flintstones are on, gotta go!

I would guess both would have skilled machinist around- the bike manufacturers would need them to make parts to repair the various machines that make the parts.

Both BH and G.A.C., from Eibar (Spain) made guns and bicycles until the '30s.

D'oh... I forgot Smith-Corona. They made 1903A3 rifles in WWII.

Husqvarna, Daewoo.

Both Eibar in Spain and St. Etienne in France were major arms manufacruring areas that moved into bicycle and components manufacture fairly early so I am pretty sure that many more names could be found of arms makers who produced bikes or components. IIRC one of the early derailleurs was made by a French gun maker in St. Etienne.

Well, there's the name Thompson, as in Auto Ordnance, makers of the famous "Tommy" gun. I don't know of their relationship to bicycles.

Then, there's Thompson, later to be known as Thompson, Ramo & Woolridge (TRW), makers of highly prized M-14 and M1A rifle components for the US Government. One thing they did, through their Automotive Division, was to fund development of several innovative bicycle technologies. I remember seeing several different propulsion systems for bicycles on display with their inventors available for discussions. An example of one was a pump crank rather than a rotating crank.

Then again, there's Thompson, as in Thompson Bearings, whose logo is a planetary gear (internally geared hub) and whose motto is "If it moves, shakes, rattles or rolls, we make it". Anyone with cartridge bearings in their bikes probably has some of these.

I'm sure there are others, too.

The same company made all three of these, Marx!

the rifling in a barrel is cut into the barrel.....ie groves

The splines in Miyata tubing sit above the base of the tube. basically a mirror image for rifling.


Doesn't matter I reall like my miyata :)

I know of three different ways to make rifling - cut rifling, button rifling and forged rifling. There are probably others, too. These relate to butting and ribbing the tubes, no?

Some high-production, low cost, gun-barrel rifling is made by swage-ing, same process as Miyata bike tubes.

But you're right, most gun barrel rifling is cut, or drawn.

Campagnolo also makes helicopter rotor hubs, and other components for military aircraft, and boast on it in catalogs,
'aviation and aerospace' in #17 .