Just finished my first build! PK-80 Cranbrook!

Awesome John! Great to hear a happy....

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Looking forward to seeing your build.

Kinda a high when they first light off eh?

Grats!!! I love it when a plan comes together...

Welcome aboard..have fun, and be safe.
(= Steve

Sweet looking ride John! The colors blend great too.

Really, really important, those fenders will try and kill you and your build soon! Not kidding. Please, please do a search. Some horror stories (one is my own) but lots and lots of fixes.

Am really glad to hear that about your fenders.

What happens is the very cheap and only bent tab on the front lets go due to vibration and a sand and salt bath from the tire. When it lets go, the fender goes around with the wheel and jams in the forks. The front stops abruptly but not the rider and the rest of the bike. Bad, bad day.

Just what I do, drill 4 holes in the fender and use U-bolts. There are some great methods used by other folks here and you can find what you would like best.

Underlined words are links.

In no way intended as advise but I don't use the kit chain guards.

welcome to the forum John... very nice lookin first build ya got there. well done

I have to agree with Dan on both accounts... you don't really have to get new fenders thou, just use better mounting brackets where they attach to the top of the forks and the rear just under the seat and i don't use the kit supplied chain guards either but if I had any younger riders on the ones i build I'd probly put it on.

again, well done... i really like the two tone color combination

minor criticizm... a preference thing really. I'd changer those hadlebars. I can't stand'em... some like them, some don't..... I don't, but like I said, it's preference thing really

& ride safe

In my opinion.... anything would be better than those
just make sure the hand grip area is long enough. I've had some that the straight length where the hand grips go was not long enough to fit the throttle and a hand brake... I bet some smaller high rise bars would look nice on that bike. Thats just my opinion thou, go with whatever feels/looks good to you.

Thats one of the great things about this hobby (customizing/personalizing)

great build, man. My bike started out pretty close to that. Then I got a newer front end (springer fork), better saddle, then upgraded (added) front brakes. Then came the handlebars, then the banana seat, added a speedometer, then the rear view mirror, and topped it off with a Manic Mechanic hub adapter.

It's a great hobby, and it's very very fun. You'll constantly look for new things to add or take off, different things upgrade. It's a lot of fun, it's pretty cheap, and people love to see you on it (as long as you're not zipping down the road trying to be mad max).

Enjoy..

Nice work there John- bear in mind, the horror stories associated with the Huffy Cranbrook front fender hs to do with the pre 2010 models- single tab holding it to the fork. Very dangerouse. I would bet that your fender has a double-tab, front and back of the fork crotch. That's what's on mine. Been running the dogsnot out of it since 2010- still holds tight, even with the caliper brake held by the same bolt. And ALL of my bikes sport BOTH chain guards as well as both fenders... but you figure what you want, it is your machine. Personally, I would be more concerned about the ragmount...
the Old Sgt.

Nice Build! Hows bouts these bars?? http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ROA...Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4602a600fe OR a little wider in the middle with mabey more length in the handle bit? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pre-war-Bic...763?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item231f479ae3

Sgt. Howard said:

Nice work there John- bear in mind, the horror stories associated with the Huffy Cranbrook front fender hs to do with the pre 2010 models- single tab holding it to the fork. Very dangerouse. I would bet that your fender has a double-tab, front and back of the fork crotch. That's what's on mine. Been running the dogsnot out of it since 2010- still holds tight, even with the caliper brake held by the same bolt. And ALL of my bikes sport BOTH chain guards as well as both fenders... but you figure what you want, it is your machine. Personally, I would be more concerned about the ragmount...
the Old Sgt.

Click to expand...

Gonna have to beg to differ on the fender issue ol' friend. If keeping the fenders on any bicycle to be motorized, it's just a good idea to shore up the fenders. $600 felt or wally world scratched up demo model. Just not made for what we put 'em threw.

Just my humble opinion and better to ere on the side of caution.

I might just be overly concerned and protective but after my face-plant all's I could think was that I had finally done it and Carol was gonna be feeding me with a spoon. The base ball sized lump between my hip and rib cage where I folded was there for a year.

The bike, an old green moondog, had a fender tab so beefy that I stopped checking it religiously.

Didn't mean to go on so long there but just didn't want some one reading this later to think that as they have an expensive bicycle or "good" tabs that they were immune. For every response to a post, at least 10 folks read it.

I was looking at that first pipe from BGF too, looks like a banana pipe (which supposedly makes good power in the high rpm range, but loud) with a longer headpipe and small muffler. I did a quick search and did not find anyone using it here.

At about $55 shipped, I would love it if that worked out to be a reasonable pipe. I am not holding my breath, though.

The second pipe should give you about the same amount of power as stock, but will put the muffler behind you so it will be a little quieter and look cool.

If you want more power, people seem to love the SBP pipe. You can tune the header length to give you power in various parts of the RPM range. Right now I have the "Speed Demon" pipe, which gave me the smallest amount of power increases for $50. If I had to do it over again, I would have spent that $50 elsewhere since the power bump was so small.

My issue with the SBP pipe is that for $85 for the chrome pipe (say $100 after shipping) I have a pipe with a copper section and silicon hoses holding it together. So after getting it tuned, I would need to run it down to someone who can weld and pay them to made a new headpipe for me to match what I cobbled together. So say another $50? So while I hear nothing but GREAT things about the SBP pipe, $150 is what I paid for the kit itself...

You could also look into Arrow Motorized Cycles. While I am not absolutely crazy about the high mounted nut burner style exhaust, they may grow on me. I might have to try one of those since they get away from me having to find a good welder...

Good luck!