# war-time rollfast (black hubs)



## bud poe (May 15, 2010)

I have a girls 26" Rollfast that I believe to be "wartime" based on the black hubs.  The front hub is a black N/D with white lettering and the rear single speed coaster brake is a black Morrow hub.  My question is how rare is this hub?  It seems I've never seen "blackout" Morrow hubs even on ebay.  If anyone has any knowledge on this I'd be interested in the knowing the value of the rear hub (it works and is in good shape but hasn't been "gone through")...Thanks!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25188425@N08/3871853301/


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## dopehead (May 19, 2010)

here you go bud iknew i seen them somewhere       http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-MORROW-...ultDomain_0&hash=item5ad8f08094#ht_1599wt_911 william


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## bud poe (May 19, 2010)

Wow, thanks Bill...So based on what he hope's to get for the whole wheelset, I'd say the Morrow blackout hub is fairly rare.  I guess I did alright, got the bike for $75.00...


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## 37fleetwood (May 19, 2010)

Hi, a couple things, first Columbia and Huffman were the only manufacturers allowed to make bicycles during the war your bike would be either right before or after the war or the wheels are off something else and were put on it at a later date. the next thing is that the Morrow hubs are all date coded. decode the hub to find out what year they are from.
there will be a single letter number sequence on the hub, as far as I know, A is from 1930 the number indicates the quarter of the year, count from A=1930 to figure it out. mine is an N3 which comes out to third quarter 1943. it is possible they are left over from around the end of the war and were used after the end of the war, parts were scarce for years after the war.
here is a photo of my 1944 Dayton. notice everything is blacked out, the bars crank and sprockets, everything that would have been chromed.


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## RMS37 (May 19, 2010)

Scott, you're a year off; A=1931. 

I've been trying to find out the span of Blackout Morrow hubs by date stamp. Assumedly the black replaced the chrome finish on some date and then manufacturing returned to the chrome finish at a later date. So far I have recorded K3=Chrome (1941), M4=Black (1943), N3=Black (1944), and P2 (1946) is back to chrome.

Anyone else have any Morrow hubs with dates that narrow down the change?


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## 37fleetwood (May 19, 2010)

I've heard both A=30 and A=31. I have 2 of these Daytons, a boys and a girls, they both have N3. the girls is in pieces and is missing a few things. so they may actually be 1945's


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## bud poe (May 19, 2010)

So I took some pics of my Black Morrow Hub...Serial # 01    36   13
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25188425@N08/


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## 37fleetwood (May 19, 2010)

so O1 is first quarter 1945, probably made for the wartime stuff but the war ended and it was put on a very early post war bike. very cool piece of history you have there. if everything is correct your bike is going to fall somewhere in late 1945 or early 1946. I'm guessing it took a while for a hub to get stamped and then make it through the system onto a bike to be sold, at least several months. V.J. Day was Sept 2 1945, it would be very cool to think your bike was a young ladies Christmas present just after the war ended, after years of doing without imagine how exciting! again if correct, your bike is possibly just about 3 or so months newer than mine.
Well Phil there's your "O" and it's a blackout, now you'll be left wondering if O2, O3, or O4 is the cutoff for blackout hubs. what if it is P1???


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## jpromo (Dec 1, 2011)

Just saw this thread for some reason and thought I'd add. I have 2 blackout Morrows and I know for sure one is an O4. The other is either O2 or O4 as well; can't remember.


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## jeep44 (Dec 1, 2011)

Here's a nice O1 I have hanging in the basement. I know I have one or two more blackout Morrows out in the polebarn-I'll have to check the dates later.


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