Beauty is in the eye... Liner. ~FINISHED~

[kingfish254]

Loving the nod to Gaskill with the speedo!
I'm surprised Jake hasn't come out of Ninja mode yet.
A curved sissy would work great with that frame. Let see if I can find a pick of the one I have from Bighit's Bully build a few build off's ago.

EDIT - Here it is

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Love that banana on there!

Luke.

 

[Missing Link]

Well the banana looked cool but as low as I needed it to look the way I wanted, it rendered the bike in no way rideable. Perhaps 7 years as a daily bike commuter has made it to where I can no longer justify a slammed seat on one of my bikes.
So, back to the drawing board. I've got a few old double pan, period correct, Persons saddles laying around, and as fate would have it, a friend of mine who works for a certain luxury jet manufacturer just brought me almost half a hide of really really primo leather "seconds", so....

 

[Missing Link]

Also, today was the first day of summer vacation for my son, and the second day of me trying my hand at milspouse/ stay at home daddying/husbanding (my last day of work at UNT was last Thursday). So I should have some time to work on this project... among the many other things that have to be done around here.
So far so good, in the fall I get to try my hand at homeschooling, but right now it's summer, so fishing, swimming, watching cartoons, working on/ riding bikes... and managing a house, yard, bills, cooking, cleaning, all that jive.

 

[Missing Link]

The speedometer is finished, and mounted.

It was incredibly nerve wracking getting it to that point. Seems the lower of the top bars were much closer together than I first had though.
So much so there seemed no way to even squeeze the cable between them. Creation is destruction for a higher purpose, the crowbar enters.

The end result;

And I did it without kinking any of the tubing or breaking any welds!!!
With that taken care of, after the tank was drilled and reattached, the next issue that needed to be addressed was that loose cable flopping around, looking like it didn't belong. Zip ties, right? Wrong. No offense to the zip tie users and those in the zip tie industry, but way too often I see really cool bikes with zip ties spoiling the aesthetics. There has to be another way. So I started once again digging through my art/junk/??? bin, and stumbled across a possible solution.

Okay, so everyone doesn't have Chinese pedicab rod brake hardware sitting around, that's probably a pretty good reason for the popularity of zip ties. I however found these bits, which would have been mounted to each of the fork legs, see where I'm going yet? I also came across a very rusty sewer snake that I kept for... this exact reason.
A little cutting, a little screwing, and this build has started taking on some accidental steampunk styling cues.

 

[Missing Link]

To beat someone to the punch, yes I know the lower part of the speedometer goes on the inside of the fork, I'm not mounting it yet because with any luck I should be getting my tires sometime this week. I discovered an email from Niagara Cycles, which had for some reason been filed as spam, from last Wednesday, saying my order had shipped so any day now this bike gets a new pair of shoes... and the speedo hooked up properly.

 

[Fv2]

Looking good.

 

[Missing Link]

Don't you just love it when your wife runs to the store with the kid because she ran out of spray paint, you jump in the shower real quick and come out to find this on your door step?

And now the fun really begins, if your idea of fun is swapping out tires and grips, I Don't think I ordered anything super cool.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

The speedo turned out nice. Cool cable mount too!

 

[Missing Link]

Thanks guys, I'm really happy with the way this build is coming along. In past years I think I've jinxed myself by going into these build offs with too fixed an idea of what I wanted to do. This year as with BO9, I didn't get the bike until the last minute and once again, find myself winging it, scrounging up parts as I go. Although it didn't even make the top 10, I was quite pleased with how "The Pepperbox Special" turned out. It won some awards on a local level, spent some time on display in two galleries, and is now part of a private collection.

I guess lack of planning works best for me, I'm reminded of all those art teachers/professors in my past who got so upset that I never submitted preliminary sketches, and when I did they looked nothing like the final product.
So far this "devil could care approach" is working in my favor on this build, I can't wait to see what the final product looks like, I'm as much in the dark as the rest of you.

 

[Missing Link]

Got the new shoes on, got the speedometer hooked up and wouldn't you know, it only works if you set it up on the left side of the front axle, left side.
So before I right my right wrongs, here's some pics w/ the new tires, CST Ritchey knock- offs, in 26x 1.9, which I chose cause they look like old school dirt bike tires and that's pretty darn cool.

I also test for a rear fender, couldn't do that w/The cream slicks. It's not the one I'll be using, an offtake from a previous Murray build, but I have clearance.

 

[Missing Link]

Here's one more pic, the lighting just seemed right, maybe you'd have to be here.

Yeah, I think you'd just have to be here.

 

[Missing Link]

Also, completely off topic, I picked this up a few days ago, 52 Schwinn right?

Boren Bicycle Co. badged, but serial #s say Oct. 52 Schwinn, next project for me...or side project? I mean nothing clears your head like thinking about the next build, right? Anyways, anyone who knows something about Boren bikes, or who needs some 52 Schwinn??? fenders, let me know.

 

[assa9]

Also, completely off topic, I picked this up a few days ago, 52 Schwinn right?
View attachment 26341 Boren Bicycle Co. badged, but serial #s say Oct. 52 Schwinn, next project for me...or side project? I mean nothing clears your head like thinking about the next build, right? Anyways, anyone who knows something about Boren bikes, or who needs some 52 Schwinn??? fenders, let me know.

Where is the name on the chaingaurd? 52 is the year schwinn started naming there bikes its super coolbtw. I just picked up a 51-52 bf Goodrich same colors and frame.looking forward to how it develops

 

[Missing Link]

Where is the name on the chaingaurd? 52 is the year schwinn started naming there bikes its super coolbtw. I just picked up a 51-52 bf Goodrich same colors and frame.looking forward to how it develops

No name on the chainguard, just the Schwinn crest in the circular indentation at the front. From what I was able to dig up Boren Bicycle Co. bought components from different makers and did paint and assembly in shop with their badge on the bikes. The frame dates to 52 but the fender is for a prewar style truss fork which is what the guy I got it from said it had and matched the rest of the bike. That particular style fork stopped making it onto bikes in 47 I believe, so this thing is kind of an enigma.

 

[GuitarlCarl]

I like it.

Carl.

 

[assa9]

It is a super sweet bicycle. I love the fact it is an enigma. Or unique.. It makes it all the more attractive. Keep on going I am digging it all

 

[Missing Link]

I have found myself on one of those situations where; A: I have a bunch of little things left to do on this build. B: little things are tedious and boring. C: if I don't step away from this project I'm going to start getting/ executing some weird ideas and screw something up irreversibly. D: with both Mrs.Link and I working on our bikes in the same area which is also the front of our house, there is a massive amount of clutter, parts, tools, in a nutshell, we're one pitbull chained to a car on blocks away from being the whiskey tango neighbors.
So I set " EyeLiner" aside, resisted the urge to play dress up with that Boren frame (I got a triple tree in the mail yesterday, I really really want to set that bike up), and set to cleaning/sprucing up the old homestead.
Once all the tools were out away and the junk and scrap sent to either trash or reserve pile, I briefly gave in to the urge

I showed restraint and stopped there.
I did decide to do a little redecorating while I was outside, and since I've had no luck selling "Winter/Spring Marriage" I decided to make it wall art.

Let me say, I have the coolest wife, I'd be hard pressed to find another woman who's cool with a bike hanging on the front of the house.

Wheel storage as a design element.

Or this bad boy over the front door. Extra cool points to anyone who knows what that is.

After what seemed like hours, cause it was hours, my shop/front porch/patio/carport (whew, that's a ton of slashes) is finally in tip top shape. No doubt tomorrow one of us, or all three of us will make today an exercise in futility, but right now, I'm going to sit back in my hammock chair, that's right, it's a real thing and it's awesome, and drink an ice cold Coke. Maybe tomorrow I'll get back on EyeLiner.

 

[Fv2]

Buick?

 

[OddJob]

Love the 'wall art'...we have some, but not that creative...and it's in the back yard (my wife's not quite as cool as yours)..
I'm going to guess Studebaker grill.