1953 Rollfast

[Saving Tempest]

I got my second one today, it has the large tank and bottom cantilevers and since the Hawthorne bugeye tank fits it perfectly I would guess that Snyder made the frame. I may have a chainguard, if it's that same as the one for Tempest then I have a spare, minus the rear bracket and the front mount.

This is from a site where I found one much like mine and then the frame I bought from Hawthornecrazy. If I can get ahold of a member who had some wheels and tires, all I have to do is get a chain on it as I have the handlebars I like and grips and a seat came with it plus I have some tank lights, courtesy of Bicyclebones.

I may get to ride it just after Valentine's Day if all works out!

I let him keep the original tank to sell as I wanted the tank with lights.

I need to find my camera and start a thread!

 

[partsguy]

I love the sprocket design on these bikes. I have one with the crank and bottom bracket components for sale. PM me if you want it.

 

[1969nam]

I got my second one today, it has the large tank and bottom cantilevers and since the Hawthorne bugeye tank fits it perfectly I would guess that Snyder made the frame. I may have a chainguard, if it's that same as the one for Tempest then I have a spare, minus the rear bracket and the front mount.

This is from a site where I found one much like mine and then the frame I bought from Hawthornecrazy. If I can get ahold of a member who had some wheels and tires, all I have to do is get a chain on it as I have the handlebars I like and grips and a seat came with it plus I have some tank lights, courtesy of Bicyclebones.

I may get to ride it just after Valentine's Day if all works out!

View attachment 265517

I let him keep the original tank to sell as I wanted the tank with lights.

View attachment 265518

View attachment 265519

I need to find my camera and start a thread!

Are you interested in selling the green Rollfast......I sent you a private message, check your inbox.

 

[Saving Tempest]

Looks great! Schwinn had an exclusive patent on the cantilever frame design, it didn't expire until 1958. So, your bike is at least a later 58, but not likely newer than 1962.

They had a large cantilever opening frame that I've seen on eBay as being from 1966, it's like mine and takes the Hawthorne 'bugeye' tank (which I'm using), and I have posted a picture from another website c.2011 of the same frame with a chainguard very similar to the one I have on Tempest, which I'm going to use on the new bike.

It's interesting that this one has a guard kind of like a Columbia? By the middle 60s you might have more Rollfasts like the Aerolite, which is a sister of a Wards' Hawthorne...I also saw an AMF named a Rollfast ROADMASTER on eBay that suggests they swallowed a lot more of the industry than I thought and maybe this was the last hurrah for the brand.

I really do need to get that Rollfast reference book this winter.

 

[Saving Tempest]

Are you interested in selling the green Rollfast......I sent you a private message, check your inbox.

I responded, that's not me...I just posted some pics to this thread and the green one I posted came from another site I found in a search...it's a reference picture for my project...which I expanded into my own thread in Project Rides as I indicated I would.

 

[1969nam]

Thank you for your quick response. The search continues for my green late 50's Rollfast......very frustrating. I'm not getting any younger !
ARCH

 

[Saving Tempest]

Try Rollfast All-American as a query on eBay and elsewhere.

 

[Adamtinkerer]

Snyder closed in 1976. DP Harris, who owned the Rollfast name, contracted with AMF to finish out existing bike orders,

 

[spoker]

similar bike

 

[CrazyDave]

VIVA LA MEXICO, err Italy?