Columbia-built Rollfast Newsboy Special

[Rat Pilot]

I stumbled up on this bike a few weeks ago and I’ve had no luck finding even any mention of another Rollfast one. In researching, I have found that Columbia originally called this bike the Newsboy Special (I assume it replaced the better known Newboy Special) but later on they called it the Big Mac. They also built this same bike for Western Flyer and as the Vista Workhorse.

Either way, it’s a big beefy bike and in pretty good shape. It rides like a new one.

 

[ricobike]

Interesting piece of bicycle history. According to the documentation provided by Mr. Columbia on his now defunct website, this bike would date somewhere between 1976 and 1980. Looks like D. P. Harris was buying at least some bikes from Columbia at that time for their Rollfast brand. Looks to be an all original bike and probably has the rare Sachs Duomatic 2 speed on it.

 

[Adamtinkerer]

D.P. Harris Hardware owned the Rollfast name, and their manufacturer was Snyder since the '30s. But Snyder went out of business in '75, leaving Harris with unfilled bike orders. They had AMF make most, but obviously Westfield/Columbia as well. Apparently, they filled those outstanding orders, and left the bike biz.

 

[MrColumbia]

There was never a Columbia called a "Newboy Special", it was always called Newsboy Special.

Now I now where the Rollfast headbage stickers were used that I got from the factory. Thanks for the post. I'm always learning something new.