Check Out These Weird Bicycles Of The 1940s

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 10, 2013 4:40PM

Gangbusters Bike mounts 13 shotguns, two revolvers, six bayonets, flare gun. (Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Bedstead Bike was dreamed up by Joe Steinlauf, who got the idea while lying around in bed one morning. (Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Four-man bicycle is powered by five chains and has brakes on both its wheels. The bike was built by Art Rothschild (top position) who broke three ribs while learning how to ride it. (Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Ice Bike, with protective mittens on handles, is Joe Steinlauf's own solution to Chicago's icy winter streets. (Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Here's a blast from the past, courtesy of Life magazine, back when Schwinn was based in Chicago and their two-wheelers ruled the roost.

The photos accompanied a December 1948 Life article on a small group of amateur craftsmen who weren't satisfied with riding simple bicycles, so they decided to create the rat bikes of their day, proving once again that everything old becomes new.

These bicycles were built by members of the Chicago chapter of the National Bicycle Dealers' Association.

By artfully applying welders’ torches to metal tubing, the chapter’s members transform ordinary, utilitarian bicycles into traveling monstrosities. By far the most outlandish ideas have come from the Steinlauf family, who produced from their bicycle repair shop most of the oddities [shown in the article]. They are hazardous; generally at least one member of the clan is to be found in the hospital.

View the full gallery here.