The merger with Armstrong (1981)

In the early 1980s, CCM ran into financial difficulties. The Armstrong Group (a major automotive supplier) bought a majority stake in CCM. The small forge became Armstrong-CCM. Armstrong's capital enabled the company to expand. They now built not only cross bikes, but also state-of-the-art road racing machines (e.g., the CF250 with carbon frame) and trial bikes.

Construction for Can-Am (1982)

Bombardier wanted to focus on snowmobiles again and moved the production of Can-Am motorcycles from Valcourt (Canada) to Bolton (England) to Armstrong-CCM.

The military coup (MT500)

The greatest success of the era was the development of a motorcycle for the army. Armstrong purchased the rights to a design from the insolvent Italian company SWM (the XN Tornado). From this, they developed the Armstrong MT500. An extremely robust, functional military motorcycle with an air-cooled 500cc Rotax engine from Austria. The MT500 became the standard motorcycle of the British Army as well as the Canadian and Jordanian armed forces.