My $89.00 Huffy Is Coming Along

A couple of weeks ago, I finally gave up on trying to find a beater cruiser in one of the local pawn shops, and just ordered a new one from Walmart.com. I wanted a beater to lock up outside at my house, so that I could just jump on and ride down to Ace Hardware, or wherever, without having to pull down a bike from the rafters of the shop building. And I wanted something that would be a little less of a financial hit if someone steals it than one of my nicer beater bikes would be.

The Huffy Cranbrook, in refrigerator white, was $89.00, with free shipping. I ordered it on Tuesday, and it was in my front yard at 1:00 PM on Thursday.

I unboxed it, and slapped it together in about 45 minutes. It could have been a quicker build, but I spent some time trying to find a stem and handlebar in my shop that I liked better than the cruiser bar the bike came with.

This is what I ended up with, on the initial build:

The stem and bars are from a 700c studded tire fixed gear bike I built up a few years ago. I has hung in the shop, slowly shedding parts, since I built up a 26" studded tire fixed that I like much better in the snow. The basket is from my Western Flyer that I had as a kid, and was purchased at Western Autoin 1971!

After I snapped that picture, I installed a layback bmx seat post, and used a quill stem shim to size it to the frame.

I rode it around, and actually used it on a run to get some spray paint, last weekend. It occurred to me that, with the layback seat post, I thought an upright bar would work a bit better. But, I didn't want to just flip the bar that was on it, because the Dirt-Drop style stem would set the bar too high to suit me.

So, I dug around in the shop, but I didn't find anything that suited. Then, I looked over at my old Columbia tandem, leaning against the house, and spied the Specialized Slingshot stem and bar on it.

The Slingshot was a stem and bar system that Specialized used on some bikes in the early 1980s. It resembles a Bullmoose bar, but the actual bar is separate from the stem, and held by two 7/8" clamps, like a motorcycle bar.

Soon, the bar and stem were off of the tandem, and on the Huffy:

I liked the look, but the bars were just a little more narrow than I really like. That was the style, back when the bars were new. But, I couldn't swap to a more modern, wider bar because the two clamps are 7/8", and the 25.4" bulge on an mtb bar would not work. If only I had a bar without the bulge...

Wait a minute!

I happened to have a motorcycle clubman bar in the shop. I flipped it over, and Bob's yer uncle!

My buddy Marty was hanging around as I worked on the bike, and he said he had some 1/2"-spindle pedals I could have to replace the plastic, crappy stock pedals. He went home and got them, and I swapped them out for some cooler, metal platforms.

So, here's the bike as it stands, right now. My cheap cruiser is turning into the Accidental Kustom...

It rides great with the new bars, and looks pretty cool, at least to me.


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I Ended Up Selling That School Desk Guitar

My last post concerned the building of a second guitar from the school desk top I picked out of a dumpster, last Thanksgiving Day. I had planned on keeping that one, but my buddy Jesse looked at it with longing in his eyes, every time I played it at the Tavern, so I made a deal with him.

But, before delivering it, I actually finished the build...

Above is how it sat after the initial build, with the big, goofy Epiphone headstock and less than stellar tuners which came on the neck. I had ordered some repops of the Kluson Deluxe tuners, like Gibsons often came with in the 50s (and some still do), with the greenish knobs. I thought that they would not only improve the tuning of the guitar, but they would also look more appropriate on this build.

I used a Chock Full O' Nuts coffee can to draw the radius I wanted on the headstock (again, following the barn-build aesthetic), then cut close to my mark with the bandsaw. After that, I used my power sander to get a bit closer to the final shape. I did the final shaping by hand, with a small foam sanding block and 3 grades of paper. I hand-sanded the face and sides of the headstock, in order to avoid accidentally sanding a dip into wood. 

The TableTop Guitar monogram was burned in with a wood-burner, as was the SD (School Desk) on the truss rod cover. Black Walnut Danish Oil finish topped it all off.

I delivered it to Jesse, last night. I was happy with how happy he was with the finished product. I really did plan on keeping that one, but I'm glad it went to a good home!

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