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Locomotive Breath

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the tinker

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Who says older folks can't build rat bikes? Haven't had time this winter to work on bikes, but finally working on the 52 Columbia. This started off as a stock 52. Changed the Columbia springer out for a Evans/Colson springer. Going to mount the machinegun horn on the front of it. Painted the tank and installed the "Lake pipes." This bike's name is: "Locomotive Breath." In the shuffling madness, comes a Locomotive Breath.... The lake pipes are made of copper pipe and fittings from Home Depot, brazed together and painted black.
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Very cool. @the tinker . Your a man of many talents.
*You know, I haven't seen any post from that 'Gadfly" who thought he was an expert in the field of Rat Bikes for a while. Hopefully he found another group to bother.
 
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It's taken me forever to put Locomotive breath together, but it's been fun. The only thing left to do is recover its tired saddle with new leather. I parted out a lot of bikes last year and parts from several of them make up this bike. The exhaust pipes were from a pre-war Schwinn Excelsior, that I took a lot of flack about when first shown. However, that bike was sold to someone who wanted to restore it... too bad for the custom world. The springer came off an Evans-Colson that I scrapped. The Chain guard is off a Hawthorne that I parted. The bike itself was a complete, but rusty stock 50's Columbia, that was originally blue and had a springer. The machine gun horn works and is solidly mounted to the fork by a steel "T" bracket. These horns are tough to keep on a bike, unless they are firmly in place, as they rattle themselves apart when ridden.
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Machine gun horn, ready to go.....
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The next custom is on the rack, already under way. A pre-war Schwinn "Liberty," sporting an early Monark springer.
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