Planet Bicycles

Planet was a late 19th brand manufactured by McLean and Bulley, later known as Planet Cycle Works.  Published dates of origin vary from 1891 to 1896, but that could be the difference in establisment of the company and commencement of bicycle manufacture. The company appears to have survived at least into the depression era, but I don't know exactly when manufacturing ceased.

It's interesting that the subject bicycle's headbadge denotes what appears to be a cycle shop, as opposed to a manufacturer. This suggests that the subject bicycle may have been contract manufactured for the shop. As such, it may not be the original Planet brand. The original brand name may have been sold or simply assumed by another company.

I'm sure the other forum members would appreciate pictures and the serial number, which may provide clues to the origin, if it is a contract manufactured bicycle.

T-mar is right. I'd love to see some pictures of your bike. It's not as bike you hear about much often.

I'll do what I can today.........stay tuned :)

Planet  existed into the 50's and was bought out by CCM I believe in 1953.  I have or had a audio tape of a former Planet employee if I can find it, it did give that information.  The Planet was made at 69 queen St., Toronto.  I have several Planet photos. The manager was Samuel Bulley. Later his son Norman Bulley took over.   I met Normans wife in the 80's I think, but she did not remember much about the bicycle buisness

Thanks so much for all the info folks.....now I know what to tell the lady. The Planet pics I took show it ib a total state of disassembly but you'll get the idea. It has rear facing dropouts and very different rear stays then what CCM had, so this definitely predates Ron's info on a 1953  CCM takeover. Someone at some point painted it barn red.....always sad to see original patina covered over. Thanks again!

Pictures, if I remember how its done :)

Sorry, if someone reminds me how to post pics here I'll gladly post them, thanks!

OldRider: It depends on where your pictures are located. If they are on a photo-hosting site such as Flickr or Photobucket, you can just cut and paste them directly into the Comment Box here. Or post the URL link to them.

If they are located on your computer within a My Photos or My Documents folder, then the easiest thing to do is to use the Upload tool provided when you started this thread. Browse > Upload > Insert

Hope that makes sense.

Let me know if there's any problem. You could also email them to me and I could pop them up here for you.

John
john.mckenty@sympatico.ca

Planet bicycle photos by oldrider.

That could very well be a CCM manufactured frame. Seat stays that were crimped and pinned to the seat lug were used on some CCM models in the 1950s. Regardless, a contract manufacturer will do whatever is asked of them, provided the price is right. Consequently, the end product won't always reflect the contractor's practices.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the frame was contract manufactured. When manufacturing companies get into financial difficulty, contract manufacture a common attempt to retain solvency and it's often a last step before bankruptcy or closing the business. To me, the age, appearance and badge nomenclature suggest the possibility of a contract built bicycle. Again, the serial number may be a clue, if was sourced from CCM.

T-Mar, if it was my bike I'd be scraping barn paint to find that serial number! Unfortunately the bike is not mine and I cannot find the serial number......CCM varied # locations through the years, on the seat tube, under the crank, etc........paint is too thick to tell :(

I finally convinced my friend at letting me have a go at finding the serial # on the Planet. After much scraping and  guessing I found the number on the top part of the seat post tube, the serial number reads : L 5916

beneath the number 6 is a letter N.   I hope this clears up whether CCM built this bike or not.......thanks for any input, its always appreciated.

Re Planet bicycles: Norm Bulley and my dad were very great life-long friends. My first bike was a Planet. My dad took me to Norm's factory/shop on Queen Street and I got to pick out my Planet bike. I was about 10 years old, so would have been around 1950 or so. Brings back great memories.

I was going to cut and paste an image of the Planet Bicycle Company stamp .. but no luck. The contents of the stamp are as follows;

PLANET BICYCLE COMPANY

69 & 71    (bicycle drawing inserted here)      Queen St. E.

TORONTO    ONT.

Interesting stuff. Thanks again.

Hi Al, Welcome to the Forum. For some reason your scan wasn't loading, so I put up the one you had sent me.

John

Thanks John. Thought it might be of interest.  Al.

It is indeed of interest Al. Any light you can shed on the relationship between Planet and CCM would also be much appreciated.

A bit of an update on the Planet...............My friend has decided to sell the Planet for 300.00 dollars. Is that a fair price? Too high? Too low? My friend and I gave it a complete overhaul, everything was left original as it was brought to us. The only drawback is the housepaint. Whats your opinion on her price? Thanks folks!

$300 seems high to me, I guess $150 would be more reasonable.

The subject bicycle does not appear to be a CCM manufactured frame, as their serial number format used 6 characters, consisting of one letter and  five numbers, in various arrangements, depending on the era. This system was in place form 1920 though 1960, after which  it was replaced by a 7 character format.

For the other forum membars' information, I have come acros a 1952 Planet price list which suggests that their connection with CCM predates 1953. There are only two models listed, a sports roadster and a delivery bicycle. Both mention CCM coaster brakes. But here's the really interesting fact. Both models use the same model number designations as in my 1950 CCM catalog and they offer the exact same options!  It certainly looks like CCM was supplying frames and parts to Planet, if not complete bicycles. Unfortunately, there are no pictures for a visual comparison with the CCM models.

Planet also obviously had some ties with Sunshine as the price mentions that they carry all Sunshine retail parts. This suggests that earlier models were manufactured using Sunshine parts and perhaps even Sunshine manufactureed frames. Do we know if Planet was a manufacturer or just an assembler?