Finally took my 1950 Montgomery Ward Hawthorne,
Dumpster Diamond, out for a test ride around my neighborhood. There are still a few tweaks and fine-tuning adjustments I need to make, but now that the crank arm no longer rubs the clear coat off the chain guard and the kickstand does a better job of keeping the bike propped up, I can safely say this bike is rideable! I can also safely say that I am
way out of shape and
way out of practice when it comes to riding a single-speed cruiser up and down the... honestly, they're too small to be "hills," but I don't know what else to call them, that are all around my neighborhood!
And yes, the picture's a little old. Didn't feel like going through the effort of taking a photo, transferring it to the computer, and scaling it down in Photoshop so I could post it here, especially after wearing myself out on that ride around the neighborhood.