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Mid 20's Hawthorne Flyer

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rustyspoke66

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Ok, this thing rides beautiful. Possibly the nicest riding bike I have. This is the one with the nickle plated Velocity p35 rims.
What I started with was very nice.
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Comparison of Velocity p-35 and stock wood clad.
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Before and after stripping p-35 rim
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Finished wheels with p35's and nickle plating.
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Bike completed and riding beautiful.
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Oh, the headlight works too. I converted the headlight to 6volt and installed rechargeable batteries. If anyone needs bulbs for this style light I bought extras because they where kind of hard to find.
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Very cool site for the batteries, I'm going to have to try making a couple. The bulb is #82 miniature bulb BA15D and I found them at a place called bulbtown.com . the tricky part was finding the double contact base. I ordered 10 so if any body needs one let me know. The bulbs are not too expensive but they kind of soaked me on shipping.
 
I have a light like that for sale on the for sale thread if anybody here is interested.

That is cool that you made it work, I've just been lazy not hooking mine up on my Ranger, and now you've inspired me to do a Sunday project! I was going to just do a Radio Shack plastic battery holder and corresponding bulb in my headlight. Great job on this bike, you had a lot to start with, but it looks killer.

Now you must get an old timey tweed suit for our "tweed run!"
 
Sounds like a bit of tweed and a trip to California might have to happen someday. I assumed that light would have sold allready, I would be interested.
 
Those nice new shiny rims look odd against the patina of the bike. I would have distressed them to match the look of the bike, or kept the original clad rims, but that's just me. May I ask why you decided to replace the original rims?
 
Beautiful job on the bicycle. Makes me wish I could just up and retire, and have a lot more time to work on my project trikes and bikes.

Dave
 
I replace the original rims because I need tires that are reliable and ridable. My only options are some sewup cycle cross tires that seem very difficult to find and are expensive. Another option is the tires they sell on ebay and Memory Lane that look perfect but cost 400.00 a set and should not be used other than display. Now that I have modern rim that can take a standard tire there is much more to pick from as far as tires go. For instance the tires I put on the bike are most likely coming off and will be replaced because I don't really like the color. The red should be closer the red on the pedals instead of the bright red that they are and that's after I dirty'd them up so they are not so bright. If someone comes up with something that looks closer to original and gives as good or better reliability I'm all for it. I like to ride my bikes more than down the block and this seemed like a good option. Hope this helps clear up some of my crazy and I hope we can discuss these topics more. Thanks, JT
 
Love that ornament! Its a hood ornament, correct? I've seen it before (or something very simlar) on a car but can't recall which car it was :(
 
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