* GROUND ZERO * (Now I can have a cold one!)

[Fireproof]

Man, Rob, you've been busy! Lookin' good now, but lets see those new rollers!

. . . I know that a 26 x 2.125 inflates nicely into a 24 x 3 tire. They're a LOT cheaper than 24 x 3 or 4 tubes, trust me on this....

And Dr. T gets my vote for RatRodBike "Hot Tip of the Month" for this one!

[slow rider]

totaly awsome build!

[bighit]

+1 for the orange and black attack

[NLCTVWguy]

looking great rob!
now I figured you would have painted your bike 1972 schwinn burgundy! wernt you collecting a bunch of bikes that color once?

Hah, I would if I could find it!

I have 2 '72 Lil Chik's, a '72 Stardust, and 1 72 Breeze in that color. (I sold one of them, and my wife put a flowered seat on the one we kept.)

Still need a Fairlady... anyone got one? I'll buy it!

--Rob

[NLCTVWguy]

They're supposed to be done TODAY! I can't wait, we're going on a ride and then pick up the wheels... starting to get excited!

Been working on my handlebars today... pics soon!

--Rob

Man, Rob, you've been busy! Lookin' good now, but lets see those new rollers!

. . . I know that a 26 x 2.125 inflates nicely into a 24 x 3 tire. They're a LOT cheaper than 24 x 3 or 4 tubes, trust me on this....

And Dr. T gets my vote for RatRodBike "Hot Tip of the Month" for this one!

[Hooch]

I sold you a stardust!

sent from my awesome android!

[NLCTVWguy]

Update: 5/30/11:

We had something of a setback when my wheel builder didn't have a spoke length that would work with the front drum setup. The rear wheel will be done soon.

I had a million other things to get to this weekend, and instead spent the time helping someone move... oh well.

Spent a little time with the bike tonight and came up with the following:

Seat post has been a problem since day 1. After beating, burning, and abusing the rusted old post out, silly me, I thought a new post would fix everything. Well guess what: these guys built it with a 7/8" post instead of a 13/16". And there was no way the binder bolt would close up the frame that 1/16 of an inch. At the same time, the 7/8 parts I had were super tight and would NOT go into the tube. I found this old stem with a stripped out clamp.... widened the inner clamp of the seat enough to fit it, had to drive it into the frame but it finally worked. Not going to be adjustable until I sit on it for a while I think!




You might notice another little goody under there... found a sweet little tiny taillight with a jet engine lens... fit right on the bolt for the keg mount. And some more digging in the parts boxes yielded this amazing full-width reflector. A cut and bent bracket from a parts bike made a nice mount, tucked right up under the back end. (Sorry for dark pic, was getting late.)




Finally got to work on the tank. Masked off the sides and went for it with my color scheme. Almost perfect, the paint followed a few rust pits and holes so I'll have just a tiny bit of touchup, but all in all I'm really happy with the paint and the color. Sets it off nicely.




Back on the bike...


Can't wait for the graphics and all the fun finishing touches!
See ya soon,
--Rob

[SCHWINNRAY69]

That's one cool rear rack

[NLCTVWguy]

Small update 5/31/11:

Fooling around with some materials at work and found this cool perforated stainless sheet metal. Headbadge? Don't get your hand too close!




The handlebars will get welded up tomorrow. A friend at work is happy to TIG weld the pieces together for me. I've prepped the crossbar and uprights. They'll also gain about 3" of length in the grip area with some pieces snipped from a 1969 Schwinn bar... the donor was hopelessly rusty on one side but yielded a bunch of little segments to play with.

This should give you an idea what they'll look like finished.



Also had to tear down the triple-tree and tighten up the bearings- the lower cup must have re-seated in the frame and loosened up quite a bit. Back in good shape now. Got an offer from a local artist for tank stenciling... don't think I can turn it down!

More soon,
--Rob

[slowerisbetter]

Lovin' those bars! You have some good friends... I need to buddy up with a TIG welder!

[Skipton]

Thanks for a great build thread lots of great info here!.... I love to see the ideas come together.....orange looks great on the tank..."headbadge" looks cool!

[NLCTVWguy]

Thanks guys for all the comments... Rat Rods' folks are the best! We all learn from each other, and come up with better ways to do our own thing!

Got a small update today, 6/3/11:

Had to order spokes for the drum brake wheel... nothing was working out with the strange diameters.

I have a real good friend who comes out and rides with us on the group rides, restores old bikes and motor scooters as well as 60's Honda Dreams. He came with us on last ride on a 28" rod-brake 3-speed Dunelt, a huge old English bike. Anyway his wife is an amazing artist. She offered to do the tank Ground Zero graphics as a painted stencil... I can't wait, it will be amazing! Should have that back in a few days. Our town has so many artists in it, we are very lucky!

Resolved some issues with proper seat mounting so now it's secure.

Located some small parts... a 3-speed cable stop that fits the chain stays (from a 71 CCM Galaxie ladies 3-speed!) Found a cool vintage chrome brake handle for the front brake... found some funky yellow-orange grips.

The big news, heading for completion- I needed bars and handlebar clamps. I cut tubing and stripped chrome and handed all the pieces to our top welder at work... we set up a makeshift jig on the welding bench and he went to town with the TIG machine.



Welded in the crossbar at the bottom...



And 3" extensions at the top, where the welds will be hidden by the grips!




I did bribe our machinist with beer... and he came up with a solution to the lost handlebar clamps that looks good and works better. He turned a donut shape out of solid aluminum on the lathe, cut it in half on the bandsaw, drilled and counterbored the bolt holes for M6 screws. The results are a close match for the original blocks.




Found I needed to trim a tiny bit off the bottom of the bars... one last trip to the grinding wheel and they're mounted!



Tall, crazy looking, and lined straight up with the forks... just what I wanted!

Later today there should be some more updates, if I don't get tied up pulling an engine...

--Rob

[Ken Nighplay]

Love the bars and fork combo, great job!

[pick]

My eyes are burning from the welding pics!!! Great lookin bike, lots of progress here!

[KOTA]

LOVE the bars and entire front end!.........This is the best build off ever! EVERYONE is bringing their "A" game.