(WBO) The Mojave Express (Some Assembly required!!)

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That's cool. You'll surely know what I mean when I say that your bike looks "correct" even the red line tires have that factory look!
 
Yes, that was the goal. Much credut due in part to so many nice parts I picked up from marius. The fenders, cranks, brakes and levers,, guard and wright seat all came in a nice box in mid january. All phillips style parts, and period correct :) the guard is different than original on the english built indians, but matches in perfectly.
 
Got the rear wheel and chain mounted and painted up the kickstand. Was doing chores in the front yard, re stuccod the bottom foot of the front wall yesterday and painted it today... Then the rain came. Had to bring the bike in. Kickstand isn't ready to go in, so for now, assembly is paused...



Will be taking this dark red leather and sewing up some homade grips instead.

 
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I've got a lot of leather scraps I found at a garage sale. I'd like to see how to sew up some home made grips...

Carl.
So for simple grips, which are what I am making, I sized up two pieces the same size to have about 1/8" gap around a handle bar end.


Next I use a rule and a sharpie and mark out where I want the holes


and punch them with my stylus they need to be full stylus width for the heavy waxed chord. I also cut a strap for the open end for a little extra tension.



Then I use the needle and thread and butt sew the leather together ending at the ring.


Then I used the lock stitcher to finish sewing it on.


When I am done I will glue some strap in a ring and sew it into the end as a handlebar bump stop.
 
Rear reflector appeared to be in rough shape. Glue, melted, and who knows what else


Sanded the glue off and polished it a little.



Finished tying down the fenders and put on the chain guard and grips.


 
That shifter cable has given me fits since I first tried to install it in December... finally got it right, but been a learning experience.

It was a brand new vimtage schwinn cable built for the sturmey three speed. On first imstall, the brass cable end on the shifter end flicked off and disintigrated never to be seen again... that stopped ke from playimg with my fresh find I'm december, amd refocus on my mbbo fab work. :)

Fast forward to Monday night. I tried soldering a roll pin to the cable end for 20 minutes, added flux, even trired a higher lead content, to no avail. Finally got fed up with it. And tried crimping it. Half of it broke off and the other half slid off.



So, I took the other roll pin I had picked up, and crimped it on, seemed to hold. Installed the cable to the bike, pulled the trigger and the brass end on the othe side split off, seen in the pic. Nice high quality ends... I heated the broken half red hot with the torch and let it cool amd crimped it on that end and trimmed it so the adjuster could slide over it. Installed the cable, amd the pin I had put on the shifter side split in half, it was too hard amd the crimp had weakened it.

So, this evening I picked up 6 more pins, hit it them with a match flame to coat them black with carbon, and this time pulled the hot plate out and got a couple of them red hot and let them cool and anneal with the burner to try to soften it a bit. Success! I was even able to trim the end of the one I crimped on and it didn't shatter.

Took the bike out for a spin around the block just before dark, I forgot how fast this thing goes. Shifts with ease and rums fery qiiet. Exhilarating! !!. :)

Out of printer ink, decals and touch up are just about all that's left...
 
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