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COMPANY HISTORY:
The D. P. Harris Hardware and
Manufacturing Company of New York City was established in 1895 and
was renowned for many products, especially Rollfast bicycles,
tricycles and roller skates. The bikes were sold under such names as
Princeton, Harvard, Savage, Roamer, Gold Medal, Rex, Peerless,
Century, Peerless, Standard, Royal Flyer, Champion, Lexington, Black
Beauty, Fleetwood, Blue Ribbon, Cadet, Winchester, Keystone, Ben Hur
(also used by Schwinn) and Puritan. They also made bikes for the Pep
Boys automotive stores. In the 1890's Mr. Harris became a
distributor of the Reading Standard Bicycle and established a
factory to produce bike and skate parts including ball bearing. This
may have lead to the Rollfast name and explains why the ball bearing
was featured on the head badge through the 1950's. The H. P. Snyder
Company of Little Falls, New York started manufacturing circular
ring knitting machines in 1895, the same year that Harris
established his company. Snyder, and his partner Fisher, began
producing a high quality line of bikes under the "S & F line" name.
The company reorganized in 1899, with the retirement of Fisher, and
renamed the H. P. Snyder Manufacturing Company. In the early 1900's
Snyder had 300 bikes that he was unable to sell. Harris offered to
sell the bikes and had sold them in less than a week. A partnership
was born.
By 1917 The Snyder Company was producing bikes and bike-related
items only. They later added wagons and trikes. A second location
was acquired in Michigan City, Indiana. During the Great Depression
the Snyder Company was hard hit. Harris and Snyder agreed that the
Snyder Company would market their bikes directly to large department
stores such as Montgomery Wards who sold the under the Hawthorne
name. The Cleveland Welding Company also supplied bikes to Wards.
This move benefited the Harris Company since they supplied parts,
such as handlebars and sprockets, which were made at the Reading
plant. The Hawthorne bikes also used Torrington pedals and U.S.
Royal tires which were distributed by the Harris Company. Schwinn
introduced the balloon (2.125" width) tire in 1933. Rollfast
introduced there model in early 1934. The "Custom Built" V-30
featured balloon tires, chrome rims, Rollfast chime siren, wide
Texas steer horn handlebars, chrome forks and struts and "Double
Arrow" point decorations. 1934 also saw the balloon tired three
wheeled delivery bike named the "Cyclo Delivery". The 1936
streamlined Sport Motobike Deluxe, V-24F, featured twin curved op
tubes with a horn tank between them. Quality features included dust
proof caps to seal the crank bearings. By 1939 the tank was extended
past the seat tube. 1941 found a ribbed tank and the Rollfast
version of the streamlined fender light. The Schwinn Company
introduce their spring fork in 1938 and Rollfast followed in 1939.
The Rollfast fork controlled the vertical action of the fork so the
wheelbase was not affected. The fork could also be adjusted to the
riders weight. During the war Rollfast, as well as all other
manufacturers, were only able to make basic stripped bikes. The
company sold replacement grips and pedal blocks out of wood to save
rubber and made "Tire-Flex" to extend the life of tires by slowing
deterioration. After the war, there was a large demand for deluxe
bikes. A cast aluminum streamliner was proposed to compete with the
Monark Silver King but was not produced. Rollfast used many
celebrity endorsements and sponsorships for their marketing. PeeWee
Reese, Willie Mays, Bobby Riggs and even Bob Hope were used to
endorse Rollfast bikes. Rollfast used television show sponsorship
and give away's for promotion of the brand.
By 1948 a new factory in Reading was used to increase production
bike and skate parts and accessories. Rollfast parts found their way
onto other branded bikes and were sold aftermarket as well. In 1949
Rollfast introduced an all new line of standard and deluxe models.
The top model, 4272, had a slightly different spring fork, a painted
"wing" design on the tank and chain guard, "ball" type headlight
mounted to the springer, chrome "bumper" on the rear and possibly
front fender, Torrington pedals stamped "Rollfast" on the caps, coke
bottle grips, and glass studded Persons-Majestic reflectors. Two
tone metallic paint was available in green, blue or burgundy
contrasted with silver. This model was produced, with slight
difference, through 1953. During 1950, cowboy themed merchandise was
popular. Harris used a tie-in with Hopalong Cassidy to take
advantage of this fascination. The bikes came in black with white
and chrome trim. There were a pair of built-in pistols with jeweled
holsters, horse hair grained saddle, fringed rear carrier, "Hopalong
Cassidy" medallions on the tank, chrome studs on the Rocket Ray
light, chain guard and fenders and a head badge in the shape of an
upside down horse shoe. The first models were 20" and 24" wheels
followed by a tricycle roller skates, 16" Play cycles and 26"
version. The bike was a success, selling around 100,000 units in the
three or four years it was offered. In 1954 the new model #50 was
the top model. Embossed chrome trim was added tot he tank, three
tone paint, chrome fenders, deluxe Delta Rocket Ray, new type
carrier with taillight and a new spring fork similar to the Schwinn
fork. The "R" design front sprocket was dropped for a five arm
sprocket and a new chainguard was added. This was the last deluxe
balloon tire model in the Rollfast line. Rollfast owned 6
distributors to sell there products. In the 1950's Firestone Tire
and Rubber was one on Rollfast's largest customers. By 1955 Rollfast
switched to the lighter weight bikes and had a very successful year.
They heavily promoted the parts that the sold, U.S. Rubber tires,
Lobdell and Troxel saddles, Torrington spokes and pedals and Bendix
hubs. These middle weight bikes did away with many of the heavy
"extras" such as spring forks and horn tanks. Many of the bikes
featured jet planes on the chain guards. In the 1960's the muscle
bike became king. Schwinn introduced the Stingray model in 1963 and
other manufacturers followed. Rollfast had the Scoot with a banana
seat and high rise handlebars. When Schwinn introduced the Krate
series in 1968 other manufactures again followed. Rollfast had
several different modified models including the Top Drag, Sparker,
Jumbo Jet and Smoothy. Each model had a unique frame design and most
featured a 20" rear slick, 16" front wheel and a spring fork.
In the early 1970's the ten speed craze hit the U.S. and Rollfast
imported the Astra from France. Mossburg, a well known firearms
maker, decided to purchase the Snyder operation. They invested money
in new technology such as carbon fiber. The Harris Company looked to
AMF to supply bikes for Rollfast when a previous agreement had fell
through with the new owners of the Snyder operation. The
distributors who had become accustomed to the quality of the Snyder
made bike refused to buy the AMF produced bikes. This arrangement
lasted only one year. Mossburg tried to produce bikes under there
own name but failed. The Snyder factory was closed in 1975 and
demolished the year after. In 1976 an auction was held to liquidate
the equipment. Huffy ended up with the giant tube mills. Emory
Manufacturing from Jacksonville, FL ended up with most the frame and
fork making equipment. Emory made industrial bikes until being
approached by Western Auto to make a retro styled cruiser. Dies for
the tanks and carriers were re-created. Emory decided to produce a
line a cruisers but the Rollfast name was being used on a line of
Taiwan mountain bikes. Emory used the Aerofast name instead.
Most of this information was distilled from the March/April and
May/June 1996 Classic Bike by Steve and Lynn Culver.
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