Vintage bikes

[SouthernBelle]

I've beginning to get a bug to find and restore a vintage bike.

Is anybody familiar with the brand name Rollfast?

Well, here's the one on CL: http://nashville.craigslist.org/bik/305455975.html

Would like an opinion before I contact this guy. Also on what to offer. It would need a lot of work.

[DebW]

Wow. What a neat find. I'm not familiar with Rollfast. But here are things to look for to figure out if you can find replacement parts:

If it has old rusty steel rims, you'll want to replace them. You'll either have to rebuild them yourself or hire a shop to relace them. Make sure you can find rims and tires in that size (possibly 26 x 1 3/8 ISO 590) with the correct number of spoke holes. See sheldonbrown.com for ISO sizes.

The crank will be either 1-piece (Ashtabula) or 3-piece cottered. The 1-piece cranks don't adjust very well but they are strong. Cotter pins can be a pain to remove and can get munged but they are workable and new pins are available.

Probably a coaster brake rear hub. Not too hard to overhaul. No gears or handbrakes to worry about.

You're probably stuck with the existing headset, bb, and hubs so make sure they are in workable conditions. As long as they are not deeply pitted or cracked, you should be able to overhaul them with new bearings and grease. Though a BB can be a major pita to open sometimes (warm up your torch).

Eyeball the frame for alignment. If it's been in a crash the frame or fork could be bent. But it looks good in the picture.

[SouthernBelle]

Thanks Deb, I googled the brand. Sheldon Brown had a Rollfast! I'm going to email the guy and see what he'll take for it.

If I get it, I may be calling out to you a lot.

[SouthernBelle]

I missed out on the bike.

[DebW]

Aw shucks! I was all excited for you.

[SouthernBelle]

At least it gave me the chance to do some reading so that I can recognize someting nifty when I see it. BTW, that was nifty.

Check out this very nifty Rollfast:

http://www.nostalgic.net/bicycle356.htm