Buy now plan later

[brentville]

I have a mid 50's Hiawatha built for Gambles Department store. It's probably a CWC frame, pretty standard, nothing special. It's very very rusty though also very complete. My "plan" was to take it down to bare metal, lose the dinged and dented fenders and build something of a rat cruiser a la rhe Tall Texan's build. I got a real nice honey leather blemished hair pin seat from ebay which fits right in with the plan. A little scuffing will be perfect. Then tonight I found what had to be a miscategorized nos 60's rear rack still in the box painted gloss black. No one seemed to know about it and I got it for only $4.00!

Now I am wondering if I need to pound out the fenders or if anyone has run the standard a standard rack without fenders? What does that look like?
I don't want to buy new fenders or paint and scallop the old ones....ughhh, now what? I don't think I can cut them down because the ends are where the dings are and it's right near the fender stays.

 

[mrbill]

Hello Brentville,

I have a rack on my offroad bike with no fenders.
The rack itself acts as a fender keeping crud off my back.
Looks neat to me.

Cheers.

 

[rat royale]

I have a mid 50's Hiawatha built for Gambles Department store. It's probably a CWC frame, pretty standard, nothing special. It's very very rusty though also very complete. My "plan" was to take it down to bare metal, lose the dinged and dented fenders and build something of a rat cruiser a la rhe Tall Texan's build. I got a real nice honey leather blemished hair pin seat from ebay which fits right in with the plan. A little scuffing will be perfect. Then tonight I found what had to be a miscategorized nos 60's rear rack still in the box painted gloss black. No one seemed to know about it and I got it for only $4.00!

Now I am wondering if I need to pound out the fenders or if anyone has run the standard a standard rack without fenders? What does that look like?
I don't want to buy new fenders or paint and scallop the old ones....ughhh, now what? I don't think I can cut them down because the ends are where the dings are and it's right near the fender stays.

Brentville,
I had a nice Hiawatha too, and it had a rack and fenders.. but I traded it away for something I ended up not keeping. Shoulda kept it.
Anyway, regarding the rack and no fanders.. I like that idea. Here's one I did that way. I have a couple of others as well, but the racks are not stamped metal, they are round wire. For your inspection...
The Hiawatha:


"X" Project - '46 DX with a stamped metal rack:


Round Wire Rack - '62 Typhoon:


Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere

 

[brentville]

Those look pretty nice. I should have mentioned that mine is the stamped metal variety of rack not the round wire that is usually an add on rack. I kind of like the no fender, rear rack look.
I will definitely run it that way at least until I can pound out or replace the fenders.

 

[rat royale]

Those look pretty nice. I should have mentioned that mine is the stamped metal variety of rack not the round wire that is usually an add on rack. I kind of like the no fender, rear rack look.
I will definitely run it that way at least until I can pound out or replace the fenders.

The round wire rack on the Typhoon is a factory type accessory, made for the middleweights. A lot of other round wire ones were add-ons from other then the manufacturer.

I have another balloon project here that will have chopped fenders and a rack as well. It is a LOOOOONG way from getting done.. There are a pile of other bikes in front of it!

I want to see how you Hiawatha starts and hope you'll post a shot of before, and some as you go. I really do wish I had kept that one. At the time when I had it, I had about a half dozen bikes, and figured that was too many. I didn't see that one coming! I presently have over thirty in various forms around here. That one would not have been a big issue... It rode like a dream, and was actually pretty darn sharp lookin' too. It needed a couple of little pieces, one of which I had here, but sold after the bike went. I had an NOS rear reflector and housing that I never got around to putting on the bike. Oh well... hindsight is much better than foresight.

 

[brentville]

Here is what the Hiawatha looked like right after I picked it up.

Not much has changed except that I took off the big cargo box a the chrome stamped nine hole rack that it sat on and sold it! I didn't think I would be running a rack and I think that the chrome one was an add on anyway. It was the only thing chromed on the bike besides the handle bars and stem.

I also think that this was a tankless bike but I'm not entirely sure about that.