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Lost Illinois Manufacturing
posted nine photos with the comment:
In 1962, AMF (the American Machine and Foundry Company) employed 755 Illinois residents, 450 of whom worked at their bicycle factory in Olney, Illinois making their famous 'Roadmaster' line of bikes and tricycles, part of their Wheel Goods Division.
80 workers made bowling alley equipment at their AMF Pinsetters, Incorporated factory located at 6500 North Lincoln Avenue, Lincolnwood.
150 employees made dispensing equipment at 3232 North Kilpatrick Avenue, Chicago where the A. Dalkin Company Division of AMF was located.
75 workers made screw assemblies, lock washers and terminals at the Thompson-Bremer & Company division factory located at 1640 West Hubbard Street, Chicago (office was at 228 North La Salle street).
In 1962 AMF would boast of employing 13,427 world-wide with corporate headquarters in New York, NY.
Bicycle History
The AMF line of bicycles marketed as Roadmasters trace their history back to the line of bicycles produced by The Cleveland Welding Company beginning in 1936. The Cleveland Welding Company was founded in 1910 to produce various products formed through proprietary electric welding, rolling and forming techniques. CWC entered the bicycle arena in the mid thirties with the introduction of their line of Roadmaster bicycles in 1936. By the second full year of production the line was expanded to include a full line of models ranging from the deluxe limited production Supreme models to junior 20” wheeled models.
Conceived to keep the factory busy during the tail end of the great depression, the bicycle line proved popular to the point that when the company returned to civilian production after WW2, bicycles had become the company’s single largest product.
Cleveland Welding was purchased by AMF in 1951, both for their Roadmaster bicycle line and for the production facilities and expertise the company had in other manufacturing areas.
After purchasing the Cleveland Welding Company, AMF entered the bicycle manufacturing business with its newly-formed AMF Wheel Goods Division and continued to produce the Roadmaster line of bicycles at the Cleveland plant. The Junior Toy Company, of Hammond, Indiana, another AMF acquisition, became connected with Cleveland Welding at this time when both companies were forcibly joined by AMF. In 1953 AMF added the remains of the Shelby Cycle Company to their holding through a hostile takeover after that firm had already been sold to one of its largest customers, the Gambles Department store chain.
In an effort to avoid the cost of doing business with the labor unions in Cleveland, AMF moved all of their wheel goods production to Little Rock Arkansas in 1956 and attempted to refocus the Cleveland factory and operation on the production of larger industrial products such as jet engine components. The new Little Rock plant was purpose built for bicycle and wheel goods production and was heavily automated and featured more than a mile of part conveyor belts in six separate systems, including an electrostatic induction painting operation…..”
Taking advantage of the increase in its target markets in the aftermath of the baby boom, AMF was able to diversify its product line, adding exercise equipment under the brand name Vitamaster in 1950. As demand for bicycles continued to expand, the company found the need for a new manufacturing facility to keep up with demand. In 1962, the company moved its operations to Olney, Illinois, where it built a new factory on a 122-acre site that would remain the company’s principal bicycle manufacturing location into the 1990s.
After two decades of consistent growth, the AMF Wheel Goods Division stalled under the long-distance management of a parent company bogged down in layers of corporate management and marginally profitable product lines. Manufacturing quality as well as the technical standard of the Roadmaster bicycle line – once the pride of the company – had fallen to an all-time low. Bicycles made at the Olney plant were manufactured so poorly that some Midwestern bike shops refused to repair them, claiming that the bikes would not stay fixed no matter how much labor and effort was put into them. The division’s problems with quality and outside competition were neatly summed up in a 1979 American film, Breaking Away, in which identical secondhand AMF Roadmaster track bicycles were used by competitors in the Little 500 bicycle race. Despite this product placement, the film’s protagonist expressed a decided preference for his lightweight Italian Masi road racing bike, deriding the elderly Roadmaster as a ‘piece of junk.’
In 1983 AMF sold the assets to George Nebel, the General Manager and Bob Zinnen. In 1987 the company was sold to entrepreneur and merger and acquisition expert Thomas W Itin. Itin brought in two other investors Equitex and Enercorp, both Business Development Companies, under the 40 Act "BDCs" run by Henry Fong. It changed its name to Roadmaster Industries, Inc. and positioned itself as the leader in the fitness equipment and junior toy industries. Itin and Fong took the company public through an IPO in the end of 1987. Itin and Fong acquired over 20 companies in the sporting goods field. Roadmaster grew from $40,000,00 in unprofitable sales to over $800,000,000 of highly profitable sales. Under the symbol of RDMI it went from small cap on NASDQ to large cap on NMS to the American Stock Exchange and then to the New York Stock Exchange and became a Fortune 1000 company.
Helped by the increasing popularity of Mountain Bikes, Roadmaster experienced a 72% increase in bicycle sales in 1993. A new bicycle production plant was built in Effingham, Illinois to keep pace with the growing demand. Roadmaster acquired Flexible Flyer Company, whose history dates back to 1889.
In 1997 the Roadmaster bicycle division was sold to the Brunswick Corporation. However, it had already become evident that production of low-cost, mass-market bicycles in the United States was no longer viable in the face of intense foreign competition, and in 1999, all U.S. production of Roadmaster bicycles ceased. Brunswick sold its bicycle division and the Roadmaster brand to Pacific Cycle, which began distributing a new Roadmaster line of bicycles imported from Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Pacific Cycle still uses the Olney facility for corporate offices and as a product inventory and distribution center.
Today the Roadmaster brand has been reactivated and is basically a low-end to middle-end bike sold through big box stores.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Machine_and_Foundry
https://oldbike.wordpress.com/1949-roadmaster-cycle-americ…/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMF_Bowling_Center
[A couple more long comments have been added.
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AMF ad from 1970.
Lyman Klopman You could get a Evel Knievel bike from AMF. They owned Harley Davidson who made Evel's motorcycle at the time. |
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Photograph of the AMF Roadmaster factory in Olney, Illinois.
Image courtesy of Olney Library and their helpful staff. Thanks Shelley! |
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Photograph of the AMF Roadmaster factory in Olney, Illinois.
Image courtesy of Olney Library and their helpful staff. Thanks Shelley! |
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AMF ad from April 1961 American Bicyclist Magazine. |
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1944 ad. |
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1945 ad. |
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Photographs of the AMF Roadmaster factory in Olney, Illinois.
Image courtesy of Olney Library and their helpful staff. Thanks Shelley! |
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Bob Brann commented on the first photo.
I had the Murray F5 Eliminator. |
I see this plant built the Murray brand. My 26" bicycle was a Murray. So it was probably one of the earlier bikes made in this plant.
When we moved into our house in 1976, I found this pedal racer in a storage area under the front porch. My three daughters put a few more miles on it.
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I was able to find replacement wheels for the front. But the left rear wheel is an issue. The "differential" for this vehicle is that only the left wheel is fixed to the axle. The right wheel doesn't help with traction.
Lost Illinois Manufacturing
posted nine photos with the comment:
A visitor posted a photo of their Flintstones pedal car (minus the pedals - it is foot powered like the cartoon one). Does anyone know what year(s) these were made by AMF in Olney, Illinois?
Martin O'Connor It's an odd composite of both Rubble and Flintstone vehicles, though.
Jeff Madden AMF in Olney is now a warehouse for Pacific Cycle. They also have customer service offices. No manufacturing at all.
Jake Marino Everything I'm seeing online says 1970s. One listing on Worthpoint stated 1975.
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