If the bicycle is from 1926 it is not a CWC Roadmaster.
The name Roadmaster was used by more than one bicycle manufacturer. Most commonly, Roadmasters are the bicycles produced by the Cleveland Welding Company (CWC) of Cleveland Ohio. The company initiated bicycle production in 1935, offering the bicycles as their 1936 line. In 1951 the company was purchased by American Machine and Foundry (AMF) and Roadmasters were produced by AMF until they sold the bicycle division and Roadmaster name to Brunswick in 1997. In 1999 the company was sold to Pacific Cycle at which point all production moved overseas.
The original CWC Cleveland factory was used for bicycle production into 1956 at which point AMF moved production to a new purpose built factory in Little Rock Arkansas. In 1962 the AMF wheel goods division headquarters were relocated to Olney Illinois but full-size bicylces continued to be manufactured in Little Rock at least into the 1970's.
I have been collecting and documenting CWC production primarily for the Cleveland built bicycles for some time now. There is no known “master list” from the factory to date bicycles by serial number. In addition, the serial numbers repeat so a bicycle cannot be dated by the serial number alone.
I have enough information now that I can usually date a CWC bicycle fairly accurately, in some cases (especially early prewar) to early, mid or late production within a given year, More often a bike can be dated to within a year of it’s factory production and as more information surfaces I hope to improve on this.
If you would like me to do my best at dating the bike for you, either post or PM me photos of the bike in general and a readable picture of the serial number. If the bike is a CWC Roadmaster built between 1935 and 1955 I should be able to date the bike with reasonable accuracy.
Phil
