couple of things

I've never seen period wheel reflectors, but IMHO flashing lights front and back are far better if you want to be seen at night.

Lawrence   About your Pixie , try and get hold of someone who is into Cyclemotors in Europe. The Victoria was made in Germany doing the late 40.s and early 50,s which the Pixie is a copy of. A lot of there parts will work. They are a lot more popular over there.

Good luck  Dave

hah period correct or not, if im riding my old ccm, whatever year it is, id rather be seen and not get hit by a car or better yet another cyclist on the trails. Reflectors and lights can be removed for shows or photographs just as easily as they where installed. 

The incorporation of wheel reflectors was driven largely by the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission), a USA regulatory body formed in 1972. The CPSC quickly developed and published numerous proposals which would eventually become law in 1978. During the interim, it was the manufactuers' prerogative as to whether and when to implement the proposals. 

Normally, CCM would be exempt from these requirements, but during the early 1970s bicycle boom the company had realized the potential of the USA market and had committed to a national USA advertising campaign in an attempt to expand their USA market share which, up to that time, had been neglible. CCM realized they would have to eventually conform ot the pending CPSC requirements in order to continue selling bicycles in the USA.

CCM used various strategies to implement the propsals. Some, like the elimination of axle wing nuts were incorporated relatively quickly. I suspect his was because the proposal actually resulted in a cost reduction. Standard nuts were less expensive and permitted tightening using pneumatic wrenchs, which were both faster and more precise. On the other hand wheel reflectors were an added cost both in terms od product and added assembl time, and CCM appears to have delayed their implementation until legislated in 1978. Certainly, they do not appear in any of the early catalogues. While I don't have the 1978 catalogue, they definitely appear in the 1979 literature.

Personally, I'm with Alan on the use of wheel reflectors. They're not a permanent installation and greatly increase your safety. Nobody rode bicycles with helemts prior to to early 1970s bicycle boom, but I never venture out without my helmet, regardless of whether it is period correct or not.

My  philosophy is that it is the owner's bicycle and he/she can do whatever they want to it, whether anybody else likes it or not. The primary function of a bicycle is to be ridden. Any modification that imparts more enjoyment  or a feeling of greater safety and results in the bicycle being ridden more often is a good thing. The saddest thing is an unused, neglected bicycle.

Thanks guys, I'll follow your advice.

T-mar you sure know your CCM history.

Does anyone have a rough guess how many CCM light delivery bikes might still be out there?

OK, let's try it another way I have one light delivery bike, there is one at a museum here, that's two, one was for sale on the CCM site a while back. Does anyone know of others?.

I'm not talking about those cycle trucks with the small wheel.

While there is no way no knowing sure, I imagine they would be fairly rare , especially examples in good condition. While they were probably manufactured in relatively  large volumes, logic would indicate that few survived. Most would have seen very heavy use and likely didn't warrant keeping when the owners converted to motorized delivery vehicles. Based on the museum reference, I asume you're located in the Ottawa region? 

Nope, I live outside of Vancouver. The Burnaby museum has a motorized CCM and a BSA light delivery bike. There is also a LDB at a meat store on 4 th avenue. There is another motorized CCM at the Harley museum here.

I'm just thinking out loud, I'm guessing there are between twenty to two hundred CCM LDBs left.

On the CABE they try and identify how many of a make of bike like the Elgin Bluebird are left. That's kind of what I'm trying to do.

I guess there is no way to figure out how many were made as it seems the records have been lost. Is that true?

That would not be an unreasonable quess, in my opinion. About 1920 the government started compiling and publishing overall production figures for the domestic bicycle industry, so at one time they would have had CCM's annual production figures though it is doubtful these were stratified by model or type. CCM's annual production is often estimated from the industry figures based on an average  market share of about 85%. 

From there you'd have to estimate the delivery bicycle percentage of total production. Undoubtedly, the children's models, roadsters and motorbikes would have consumed the vast majority of sales. Speciality models like delivery bicycles, racers and Flytes would be relatively small by comparison. 

Despite the presumibly small annual production for delivery bicycles, the overall production becomes quite large when you consider that they were produced for several decades. Still, I think the survival rate would be fairly low considering the high usage they would have experienced and their low social stature.  It's not like other low volume models such as the Flytes and Flyers which were viewed as elite, high end models and were typically better cared for and preserved.   

Thanks for your help, yet again, T-Mar.