I have heard the tale of Austro-Daimler/Puch/Steyr being interested in selling bikes to meet some regulation regarding firearms sales in the U.S., as well - though I never heard it in the 70s.
I'm not too sure it would have helped, though - mostly the arms Steyr built were long guns, which have/had fewer restrictions. For that matter, my perception is that their rifles in particular were pricey enough to be serious luxuries - either the ugly Steyr AUG (a favorite of Hollywood films for a while there, but I've never seen one in the Southeast at any range or gun shop or gun show, if that means anything) or the exquisite Mannlicher-Schoenauer bolt-actions, which are frequently dainty little carbines that make one think of Hemingway and safaris in the 20s and the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.
The first Puchs or ADs I saw were in the mid-70s. My perception at the time was that AD was the premium line, with Puch being the lesser line of bikes - sort of like Gibson did when they acquired Epiphone and built both brands of guitars on the same production lines.
In early 1978, a bike shop in Macon did its best to sell me a Puch Royal Force, which was the top of the line bike that year if memory serves me correctly. List was something like $550 or $600. I want to say it was silver grey, with lots of black anodized parts - in fact, I think it was all Shimano Dura-Ace. Full 531 Reynolds frame, SunTour dropouts. Also tubulars on low-flange (I think) black Dura Ace hubs.
Two or three months later, my father got me a Puch Royal X from a shop in Dekalb, GA. Same frame, but in white (they also made them in salmon that year). Mix of parts that would make an iBOB happy - Dura Ace cranks, SunTour Cyclone derailleurs, power-ratchet dt shifters, Weinmann Carrera sidepulls, SR bars, stem and post. Wheels were Normandy Sport high-flange hubs, Weinmann 27x1 1/4 rims, 70 psi tires of some sort or another. Paid $340, including some parts swaps before it left the shop.
I probably should not tip my hand here, but I do keep hoping I'll stumble onto a Royal X in white someday. The only real value they have is sentimental, though - they were built a lot like Gitanes or Peugeots or Raleighs, but with less character. It all worked, it was functional, but it was definitely a production line bike with all sorts of glitches in fitting and finish. Seriously, my Puch had the worst paint job of any bike I ever owned, including the $50 West German Brownie I rattle-canned white when I was 13 ...
Russ Fitzgerald
Greenwood SC
rfitzger@emeraldis.com