I repainted the last of the seat plastics and recovered the seat. Then put things together.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXEIKmYFE-F/
The long seat trim pieces were a little long and needed to be trimmed down but overall with the rear fender on this build was coming together.
The big issue was that my triple-tree stem was too short. I had a long bolt holding things together but I needed something permanent.
To solve this I found a piece of steel tube that fit perfectly into the stem. I then cut the stem in half and slid the tube in between the halves. I then adjusted the length so it was about two and a half inches longer and drilled some holes between the old stem halves and the tube. I then riveted everything together. Finally I welded everything in place. There will have to be a catastrophic failure to sheer the rivets and the weld. Once on the bike everything looked perfect.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXGPB-Ilukl
I put things back together and then mocked up where the taillight was going to go. I ended up going with the higher mount.
The only things to figure out now is how to mount a backwards freewheel. I won’t put an engine on this guy until the pedals are working…one alignment problem at a time.
Next up…panniers days…it rhymes if you’re French, I swear!