A Rollfast Adventure

[chuckspeed]

My bike, a '55 Rollfast Super Deluxe, showed up Monday. Got it together (late) so was unable to take it for a ride until this evening. My wife and I decided to go for an after dinner ten miler to check out Dream Cruise...

www.dreamcruise.org

if you've not seen it - it's pretty amazing. 40,000 cars and 1.5 million people converge on an eight lane, 12 mile long strip of asphalt between Detroit and Pontiac - Mardis Gras for things-with-motors. I'm kinda tired of siting in traffic with the hot rod or the drag car, so the bike is a neato way to see stuff.

The Rollfast (no name yet) rode out pretty nice for just slappin' it together. The springer was a little out of whack which prevented the bike from being no-handed, but the the combo of that prgressive spring up front and a tasty Troxel seat made for one smoooth ride!

There were lots of folks out ridin' to the Cruise - was kinda cool passin' mountain bikes on a 50+ year old cruiser; made folks feel kinda sheepish.

on the way back home, I tried to make the littel bugger fly, but...

as I rode across a curb cut, the stepped seatpost cracked at the swage, nearly de-scrotumizing yours truly in the process! Inspected the crack - it had stress cracked from the inside out - no indication of damage until the seat decided it was time to part ways with the bike.

Fortunately, we were only two miles from home - my wife got the wagon and picked us (the bike and I) up inna matter of minutes. I'm gonna weld up the post in the interim, but I'ss be needing a solid step post here shortly - one that won't rob me of my manhood when I least expect it!

oh well...Wasn't planning on having any more kids.

Who sez old bikes aren't an adventure?

 

[Monark52]

Was this the look on your face when it happened? :eek:
Glad your ok!

 

[militarymonark]

yes im sure most of us have had stories to tell about something breaking while riding i know I have plenty but yeah sometimes those old bikes just dont want to cooperate. Good thing it wasn't worse

 

[chuckspeed]

Part of the adventure is whether you're gonna get there or not!

Welded up the seatpost; ground it down to look like an orig post and then gave it alight coat of silver hammertone paint. Been using the stuff for a couple of years now - works well in providing a finish to parts that typically didn't have paint.

While I was at it - I painted the fenders in black hammertone (temporarily), added a couple of scallops in Navaho white (cream) and touched up the frame and tank with black touch-up paint so's it won't rust further.

this is what it looks like 4 days after it showed up:

and this is what it looked like when it showed up:

more today pix:

rode it 15 miles this AM - will ride it more this evening:

 

[militarymonark]

looks good not bad

 

[chuckspeed]

UPDATE:

the front wheel looked really grody, so I ripped out the spokes. Turns out the rim was painted with some sorta latex flat HOUSE PAINT (!?); buzzed it off with a pizza wheel and laid down three coats of Navajo White - a color used by gauge resto guys to replicate the cream of old auto gauges. It's real close to the cream of the orig rear wheel.

whent to the bike store for a set of stainless double-butted spokes; the guy behind the counter looked at me kinda goofy when I gave him the spoke dimension in inches and asked for 36. I shoulda known better; he gave me two different lengths (!) - both of which were wrong.

On trip # 2, I brought a spoke into a different store. You'da thunk it was an egyptian relic; the guys marveled at the butting and the thinness of the spoke gauge (wasn't rusted, just blackened wth zinc corrosion).

Second time was a charm; took all of about 20 minutes to lace and true the front wheel with the correct spokes. Forgot how much I enjoyed wheel lacing; takes a certain amount of thought and discipline to do right. Darned thing was 95% true on the first pass - not bad for a steel wheel!

Anyway - the fresh paint on the rim and shiny spokes really wake up the bike. I'm gonna strip and relace the rear wheel tomorrow...Hopefully the chainguard will show up and I can snap of pick of the freshened product!

 

[chuckspeed]

8.20.08 Update:

Liked the front wheel result so well that I did the rear last nite; one hour from flippin' the bike over to riding it down the driveway. I like stripping out the spokes; you get to clean the hubs and rims much better thataway.

Prior to doin' the rear wheel, I went out to Pop's place and picked up his Beugler striper. If you've never seen one - it's like a hypodermic syringe with a serrated wheel where the needle would be. Makes even a loser like me an expert striper. Laid down a pair of red stripes on the front wheel; they're not as nice as I'd like them to be, but it's been 25 years since I've used that damned thing! Anyway, they made the wheel match the rear - and they made the rim 'pop' in the process.

Finally - Rich Gardner of Kansas and I traded chainguards. Craziest damned thing - he had a black chainguard on his blue bike; I had a blue chainguard on my black bike. Guard showed up last night, and it looks GREAT!

Have sent jing to Parker for his Phantom horn; will add that to finish off the tank. Need to find a pair of white torpedo grips and period correct pedals - and I think I'll call it a day on this one. Will post pix later in the week, as I'm almost a thousand miles away from the bike as I type this.

 

[chuckspeed]

8.22.08 Update:

Since all y'all are pix junkies - here's what the latest round of updates look like:

stainless pokes and a fresh coat of paint on the front rim:

i tore into the tasty troxel seat this evening; cleaned the chrome and shot the seat pan and associated hardware with black lacquer. this is how it turned out:

A pic of the orig seatpost decal - it ain't pretty; but it certifies the paint is original, at least!

 

[chuckspeed]

Rich Gardner was kind enough to do a blue/black swappie on the chainguard; the CABE rocks!

Rear wheel close up:

resto'd front wheel. I'm not happy with the striping; will tear it off and try again when I've the time:

Head badge:

Parker is sending me a horn set; will adapt something for the fender lite to make that functional - and will bow to modernism and run an LED tail lamp to conform to Key West night specs.

Gonna replace the handlebars with half moon pullbacks; the grims with white Elgin torpedos and the pedals with jeweled teardrops - and call it a day. Will have wayy more in the bike than its worth - but who's counting? I'd spend more to run a car at the dragstrip than this entire bike cost me!

 

[chuckspeed]

Me so horny!

8.27.08 UPDATE:

Parker's repop Phantom horn showed up (THANKS!) so it hadda go in to the tank B4 dinner.

Turns out the repop horn assembly used on the Phantoms is a universal one; the battery bracket frame is drilled to the DP Harris tank mount!

Soo...I drilled out the battery clip with intentions of tapping the holes to accept 10-24 screws, but...

The cheesy spot-welds fell apart B4 I could penetrate the battery clip.

<sigh>

pulled out the welder; put four spot welds on the clips and brackets to hold things tight. Tapped the bracket; found a couple of correct screws to retain the assembly in the tank. Cut the screws to length and was good to go, except:

1) after getting it all ready to go, I noticed the Phantom assembly is a right-hand mount, and the DP Harris tank is a left-hand mount. Battery clips are upside down...Damn.

2) D-cell batteries are not a household staple these days.

tore apart the emergency flashlight to steal some D's (somebody PLEASE remind me to replace them before I hafta live in the garage) to address # 2, and duct-taped the snot outta the assembly to address #1.

It's in - looks phat, and makes noise...All good! Yup - it's waay high pitched comapred to the horns of old, but this is a rider...having something function in the hole beats the alternative. Now it's a TRUE tank bike, and I'm a happy camper!