The Magnificent Mustang Motorcycles

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Today, original Mustangs are highly prized, routinely selling for $10,000-plus in concours condition. Even “beater” Mustangs — when you can find them — typically bring more than $5,000.
Today, original Mustangs are highly prized, routinely selling for $10,000-plus in concours condition. Even “beater” Mustangs — when you can find them — typically bring more than $5,000.
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Building bikes at the Mustang Motor Products Corporation in Glendale, Calif., in the late 1940s.
Building bikes at the Mustang Motor Products Corporation in Glendale, Calif., in the late 1940s.
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1946 Mustang Colt with the 125cc 2-stroke Villiers engine.
1946 Mustang Colt with the 125cc 2-stroke Villiers engine.
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1956 Mustang Colt with a 320cc flathead 4-stroke engine.
1956 Mustang Colt with a 320cc flathead 4-stroke engine.
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1963 Mustang Thoroughbred with rear swingarm suspension.
1963 Mustang Thoroughbred with rear swingarm suspension.
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1964 Mustang Trail Machine “Rear Suspension” model.
1964 Mustang Trail Machine “Rear Suspension” model.
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Howard Forrest’s first 300cc 4-cylinder motorcycle sits next to a Harley-Davidson.
Howard Forrest’s first 300cc 4-cylinder motorcycle sits next to a Harley-Davidson.
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1964 Mustang Model 7 DeliverCycle with a 4-speed tranny.
1964 Mustang Model 7 DeliverCycle with a 4-speed tranny.
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Al Simmons with a few of his prized Mustangs.
Al Simmons with a few of his prized Mustangs.

No one knows with certainty how manufacturing mogul John Gladden, founder of the Mustang Motorcycle Corporation, selected the name. Some say he thought of wild horses. Others say it stems from the P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Both stories make sense, but we like the one about the P-51. Gladden Products made parts for World War II combat aircraft, so it seems logical that the P-51 Mustang could have been part of the calculus that created the Mustang moniker.

Gladden Products had a lot of things going for it, but as World War II was ending, John Gladden knew he needed a new product. Synchronicity struck when he noticed a very unusual motorcycle in the company parking lot. It was scooter-sized, but it was a motorcycle — a miniaturized motorcycle. The bike belonged to Howard Forrest, a machinist and engineer, and a serious motorcycle enthusiast who constructed it using a water-cooled, 300cc 4-cylinder engine he designed and built himself, from scratch.

So this was the time and the situation, Gladden casting about for a new product, one of his engineers riding a personally-designed and fabricated small motorcycle to work, and millions of young men returning from the war. Gladden recognized opportunity when he saw it: His new product would be a small motorcycle.

Gladden challenged Forrest and Chuck Gardner (a fellow Gladden Products engineer and motorcycle rider) to develop a lightweight motorcycle. Forrest’s 300cc engine was intriguing, but would be expensive to build. Gladden wanted a lightweight and inexpensive bike; more substantive than a scooter, but not as big as a motorcycle — a scooter-sized motorcycle. What resulted was a family of Mustang motorcycles.

The first Mustangs

  • Published on Dec 4, 2012
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