rustymetal

A few weeks ago I dug out an old Columbia balloon tire bike that belonged to my dad, the bike is from the late 40's or so. Its a typical cantilever frame bike with 26" x 2,125 tires.

I pumped up the original tires, lubed the chain and figured I'd see how it rode.
I hadn't ridden it since I was a kid back in the early 70's.
It was a bike my dad bought in high school.
The tires are still what I assume are the original Carlisle Lightning blackwalls it came with new.
The bike is 'well used' but was always fully functional. I hung it where it sat over 40 years ago up in the trusses of the garage.
When I tried to ride this bike the other day, it pulled HARD to the right at any speed. so much so it was nearly impossible to ride.
I looked the bike over and really haven't found anything wrong or 'changed' from back in the day.
I pulled the front wheel and forks, checked the forks in my Park fork alignment tool, both blades are straight and perfectly aligned, the headset is like new but needed some fresh grease.
I put that back together and tried it again. It made no difference at all. I flipped the front wheel around, that also made no change in the pull.
I put the bike back on the stand, pulled the rear wheel off and checked it for dish and true and it didn't need any adjustments.
The back wheel sits straight in the frame, with no noticably angle or tilt.
I used a frame gauge and checked the frame from the headtube back to the rear dropouts and its identical on both sides.
When fully assembled, both wheels are perfectly aligned with each other..
Nothing I've done has helped the pull. As far as I know the bike has never been wrecked or hit. Even the both fenders are still perfect on this bike.
I rode it the day I hung it in the rafters, dad had gotten too old to ride and it wasn't my kind of bike so it got hung up for storage. It hung from three big hooks off its wheels two hooks on the handle bars, and one around the rear of the top tube. The bike was then covered in a huge plastic bag with the air sucked out with a shop vac. In hopes that the tires wouldn't rot and to keep it from getting covered in dust. I hadn't intended for it to be up there that long but it sort of got forgotten.

The bike pulls almost the instant it begins to move. Its impossible to get up and speed since the faster you go the worse the pull.
I've been working on bikes for years, I never seen anything like this.
What's worse, I've got an old Monark ladies bike from the same era that's a total wreck, the rear tire sits crooked in the rear frame, centered between the chain stays but nearly touching the seat stays on the right side, and the front forks are bend back about a half inch yet it rides just fine. Its been my go to the store bike for 30 years, sort of a 'so ugly no one would ever touch it' type of ride. I keep it lubed and serviced and it keeps going.

I went through this Columbia now head to toe, I cleaned and regreased everything, checked every possible alignment on it and nothing made any difference.
I even tried tweaking the fork blades to the right a bit and it made zero change in how hard it pulls.
I even tried swapping the wheels from the Monark over to it and still no change, (The Columbia wheels also ride perfect on the Monark).
So far I can say for certain its not the wheels, its not the fork, and its not the headset, and that the frame measures out well within spec.
The old Monark is so bent up that each wheel leans to a different side, the left wheel almost touches the left seat stay and the right wheel sits off to the right in the forks due to a weld repair on the one fork tip, yet it rides fine and don't pull.

Any ideas?