The story
The formation of C.C.M. came at the same time as an American bicycle industry consolidation: the American Bicycle Company was formed by 42 manufacturers, and soon afterwards announced plans to open a branch plant in Canada called the National Cycle Company.
C.C.M. was established upon the amalgamation of the operations of four major Canadian bicycle manufacturers: H.A. Lozier, Massey-Harris, Goold, and Welland Vale Manufacturing. The company then accounted for 85% of Canadian cycle production.
Around 1899, many smaller bicycle makers went out of business, and C.C.M. soon became Canada's industry leader.
Russell Motor Car Company
In 1903, weakness in the bicycle market prompted C.C.M. to acquire the assets of Canadian Motors Ltd. (CML), a failed automobile producer. Tommy Russell, C.C.M.'s new general manager, saw an opportunity to diversify his company's product line.
In 1904, anticipating the growing market for motorcars, C.C.M. established the Russell Motor Car Company in Toronto.
C.C.M. Weston Factory
In 1895, H.A. Lozier & Co. opened a bicycle manufacturing plant on St. Clair Avenue in the Town of Toronto Junction (as the town was then officially called). Massey-Harris and Gendron Bicycles also moved some bike manufacturing to the Junction in the HA Lozier factory.
Montreal, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, were originally part of a diversified network of C.C.M. manufacturing processes. By 1917, C.C.M.'s bicycle manufacturing operations had moved into a larger factory on Lawrence Avenue West east of what is now called Weston Road in Weston, Ontario where manufacturing continued until 1980.
From 1939 to 1945, during the Second World War, C.C.M.'s cycle's manufacturing facilities were taken over by the Canadian government and declared an essential war service. Two simple, one-speed bicycles were manufactured and then shipped in wooden packing crates to the Canadian army. They produced motorcars, which have allegedly been used as light military vehicles. Due to a rubber shortage in 1942, the pedals of C.C.M. Rambler bicycles had wooden blocks. According to WWII veterans, the Rambler was popular with U.S. and British armed forces as well as Canadians.
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By the late 1970s, the company was experiencing yearly losses and had to rely on the government for loans to keep itself solvent. A change of ownership failed to improve matters and the company declared bankruptcy in January 1983.
Today, the site of the former C.C.M. factory in Weston is the location of a Tim Hortons coffee shop The community continues to honour CCM with bicycle themed lampposts.
Procycle Group Inc.
Shortly after C.C.M. declared bankruptcy in 1983, all of the assets of the company were purchased by Procycle Group Inc. of Québec who retained the bicycle division and sold off the hockey division to Montréal businessman David Zunenshine.
Procycle has acquired rights to a number of cycling brands for use on various lines of bicycles. At some point, Procycle renamed CCM to 'CCM Cycle' to better differentiate the brand from the separate CCM Hockey business.
In 1999, the CCM brand turned 100 years old. After a 101-year history, over 10,000,000 bikes had been manufactured in Canada bearing the CCM name.
As of 2004, Procycle was the largest bicycle manufacturer in Canada, building 200,000 CCM-branded bikes per year across Canada and the USA.
The CCM Cycle website remained online until February 2008, then displayed an under construction message until the end of May 2008 when it went offline.
In an Industry Canada company directory profile updated in February 2010, Procycle lists only two bicycle brands and divisions, Miele and Rocky Mountain, as reflected on the Procycle website. Canadian Tire has since acquired the rights to the brand
From Wikipedia’s article on CCM (bicycle company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4