Roland Heavy Duty Cruiser

[FreddyS]

Picked this bike up for $ 50 today. It has a really cool frame and some thick spokes on the tires. Has that ugly black wrap on the Handlebars which I will remove when I get home tomorrow and have a chance to clean it up. Bike basically has sat in garage since it was purchased in 1997. Guy I bought it from is the original owner and even gave me the purchase slip. Probably gonna flip but it would make one badass Klunker!

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[A.S.BOLTNUT]

Cool score , I've never seen spokes on tires ?
Can we get a close up of that ?

 

[scrumblero]

cool! rebadged Murray? (maybe just the chain guard?)

 

[FreddyS]

cool! rebadged Murray? (maybe just the chain guard?)

IDK. Looks exactly like a Schwinn Heavy Duti with the exception of crank and pedals.


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[scrumblero]

well its a Murray chain guard I think, but that sprocket was on more Huffy's than anything else, and the Schwinn HD tube forks were slash cut and had rack/fender mounts on the back so I dunno?? whats the serial number look like?

 

[FreddyS]

Cleaned this sucker up and it really pops! Tires still have nipples on the side and bottom. Very little use on this bike. Cannot find much information on bike but what I can leads me to believe it was built in 1997.

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[horsefarmer]

Nice bike! I found this thread re Roland bike looks similar...http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/bought-a-roland-coral-today.3742/

See the Taiwan sticker under the badge. maybe made by Giant?

 

[Wildcat]

Looks pretty close to a Huffy Cranbrook.

 

[FreddyS]

Looks pretty close to a Huffy Cranbrook.

Eh, I don't know. Handlebars and stem are different. Rear dropouts are more straight on the Roland. Crank looks similar but the notches on the sprocket are wider and shorter on the Roland. Chainguard is different as are pedals. Lastly, the spokes on the Roland are a lot thicker.

Wish I could find more info on this bike but there is not a whole lot out there. Took it for a ride around the neighborhood and it rides like a top!


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[Bicycle808]

I think the ¨Roland¨ has a smaller-diameter downtube. Plus, weren´t Cranbrooks always made in China? What´s the serial on this thing? I´m thinking it´s built by Giant....

 

[Bicycle808]

Cool score , I've never seen spokes on tires ?
Can we get a close up of that ?

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

 

[FreddyS]

A couple of wise acres huh? Et tu [emoji23]


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[FreddyS]

The serial number on the bike is HEDL000556.

Can anyone decipher this for me?


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[deorman]

The Roland has nice brazed on dropouts, the Huffy has stamped/pressed and spot welds. The Roland has steel fenders and a much nicer handlebar clamp as well.

 

[scrumblero]

Found this on another forum..

The bikes are made by a guy named Roland Lo in Houston, TX. From what I've been told, he goes to China and picks the frames he wants made, has them shipped to his warehouse in Houston and builds the bikes under his own label. The ones I've seen have fairly decent hardware and wouldn't call it a bigbox store bike.

and this as well.

I used to ride with Roland at the shop I worked at back in the day in Houston. He was funny as hell and loved bikes. He did our Thursday night pub crawls all the time. He wanted to be able to provide a decent bike at a lower cost than the bigger brands. His bikes were nothing to race, but for entry level enthusiasts. Nothing more, nothing less. They were good starter bikes without getting a dept store bike.

 

[FreddyS]

Found this on another forum..



and this as well.

I believe I saw something on the old net which mentioned this gentlemans name. Makes sense. This bike was purchased in Corpus Christi, TX. I think he bought his frames in Taiwan though. The bike's minimalistic look does look like it was put together in a bike shop rather than a factory.

This makes the bike even cooler! I may have to revisit my asking price on CL! [emoji16]


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[scrumblero]

There's company called HED in China that makes bikes and stuff.. Might be the HED in the serial#

 

[FreddyS]

There's company called HED in China that makes bikes and stuff.. Might be the HED in the serial#

Nah I think this guy was buying his parts overseas and assembling them in Houston. The frame was made in Taiwan which is not a bad thing and it is pretty well a knockoff of Schwinn Heavy Duti cruisers. The other parts are from here and there but still quality parts. Still a very cool bike!


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[scrumblero]

I think Giant was the first one's to make the import HD's for Schwinn (I had an 80 with a Chicago frame and Giant forks), so that would make sense. It may be the same frame if he was getting them out of Taiwan. I was just trying to wormhole the serial number to the China story..