WW2 Bicycle Mystery

[jack neville]

I offered to help out a fellow MLUer with an old bicycle said to be a war time model of some sort.

[jack neville]

It bears similarities to the British Army BSA bicycle in the frame and obviously the pedals but the headstem has a decorative pattern whereas the British model I understand has a plain headstem. There were no serial numbers like the British bicycles.

The seat stem and rear brake hub look correct.

[jack neville]

I stripped the bicycle and scraping off the paint underneath the crank I found something interesting.
Someone may know what the letters and numbers mean but there is no mistaking the D^D stamps.
The numbers on the outside appear to read 19 39 but reading the other way could also be 62 61. There is also a faint 4 in the centre.

[jack neville]

Removal of the front forks located the only other numbers.
Hoping someone can offer some further advise or information.

[Ganmain Tony]

From my limited knowledge Jack...

Malvern Star supplied ALL bikes to the Pacific theatre and used up a huge amount BSA parts in the process.

It is quite likely this is a Malvern Star manufactured bike and it will have BSA stamped bits.

Just bought a WW2 pushie and am reading a book called The Bicycle in War Time.

Amazing feats performed by Canadians, Aussies, New Zealanders, South Africans, Rhodesians and Brits on these machines.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Interesting to see an Australian made one. I really like military bicycles, but there is not a lot of info available.

Here's a thread I started a long time ago on my bicycle: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=20143

You can look at http://robvanmeel.nl/?q=search/node/bicycle for reprints of period manuals.

Googling for Malvern Star, finds you results like these: https://oldbike.eu/ww2-malvern-star-military-model/

There's an Australian forum with some references too: https://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/

HTH,
Hanno