rsb000@hotmail.com writes:
> both Mossberg and Browning jumped into
> the "bike biz" during the 1970's boom)
>
Interestingly, I was in Ogden, Utah last week on business and had a few
moments to kill so I visited the Browning Museum. The old store front is in the
museum and it says Firearms and Bicycles--this probably from the early 20th
century!! There is a picture of it with bikes on one side of the store and
guns on the other. A side piece of this is that Browning held the patents for
many of the most popular military and hunting small arms of the past 120 years,
including the Colt 1911 .45 auto; the 9mm FN High Power auto; the Model 94
Winchester; and many of the others seen at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
You can also see another later Browning invention, the automatic bicycle transmission:
http://www2.bsn.de/
Or, you can checkout Fabrique National's little excursion into bicycles with a google search: "By the mid-1890s, the company began seeking other production areas, and in 1896 the company launched production of its own line of bicycles, including its own "acatene," or chainless, shaft-driven bicycle designs. The company would remain a popular producer of bicycles for some 30 years."
So, while many firearms companies may have jumped into the "bike biz" in the 70s, they actually had their roots in the bike industry from the very beginn ing.
Lou Deeter, Orlando FL
**************************************
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at
http://discover.aol.com/