Old Fools Journal: Rollfast

We have here in Trollville a variety of trolls, zombies, leeches, the occasional ghoul and some enterprising people. One of the latter is a young man (32 or so) who is the neighborhood scavenger. He rides around the neighborhood on a lawn mower pulling a trailer and collects junk that people put out on the side of the road. Things like water heaters, refrigerators, washers and dryers, old metal roofs that have blown off and sometimes bicycles. He has brought me numerous bicycles that were past their prime as bicycles but had many useful parts. Occasionally I get one that can be put back into service using those parts.

Sunday he brought me this (first photo) but this time it was different. It was not for sale or give away. He was in love with it. He didn't know what it was but he knew he wanted it for his own. When it was given to him it was a ball of rust but he had cleaned it up and painted it. His painting skills are even worse than mine. He tried to reassemble it but he just couldn't do it. He has no education, can not read or write, his mother and father cannot read or write and he has no mechanical skills at all (he painted the bearing races in the bottom bracket). The only thing he does well is pick up junk , drink beer and smoke cigarettes (that I know of). He is respectful and polite. He doesn't steal which puts him in an elite group around here.
In the process of cleaning it up he scraped off all the stickers that identified the bike but he did have the presence of mind to have his sister read them. The one on the seat tube said "ROLLFAST" and indeed it is according to pictures I found on the Internet. It is, I believe, a late 1960's or early 1970's Rollfast "Scoot". The wheels are 24 inch.

His attempt to put it back together was a complete failure but even if he had it right it would not have worked. Some of the parts were just not the right parts but I had enough stuff that I had scavenged from bikes he had brought me in the past to get it going.

Monday he brought me another junk bike that I had requested for a particular part but it was not the size I ask for. However it had a front wheel that fit his bike and since his front wheel had two broken spokes I started mixing and matching parts until I had a workable straight wheel. When I took the tire and tube from his bike I suspected that it was original equipment. The tire was worn and crispy around the edges but still usable. It had not been off in a very long time. The tube had an extra thick stem which made getting it out difficult but when I did printed on the tube in big white letters were the words "original equipment" "made in the USA". It had one patch and it was an old hot patch. The rubber was in perfect condition. I have near new tubes "made in China" on my shelf that have rotted. I can't remember when I last saw an American made bicycle tube.

The last I saw of this bicycle he was riding down the street grinning like a Cheshire cat. Now I would like to get him interested in a human powered machine for picking up the junk. The neighborhood is flat and the streets are well paved. I could tow an elephant in a trailer around here so I know he could. It's going to be a hard sell as he loves his "ride" and like most people here he was baptized with gasoline.