1953 Schwinn 24" Progress

Just for thrills, here's the project bike. Just built the wheels, drum brakes on alloy hoops. Rear is set up to take a 5 speed freewheel. Paint is "appliance epoxy", gives a decent finish and comes in a spray can. This will be getting high rise handlebars and a moto-style banana seat.
Finally found a shorty Schwinn front-freewheel crank so I'll be able to use the SBP shift kit.
Tires should be in soon, and then we'll see how it rides before the motor gets slapped on.
There's a separate thread going about the Russian engine kits elsewhere in this forum, anybody have direct experience with these? I like the look but a bit unsure about the rest.
Cheers, Geoff

Had a bit more time to dink with the bike. Did a quick mod on the chainguard to make it fit the smaller frame. Installed the shortie Schwinn front freewheel cranks. Ended up with a few extra standard sized FF cranks from from my travels. Rings are 39 52, so we'll see how that goes as far as gearing. Thanks to craigslist I'll be replacing the existing drum brake rear with a Nexus 7 with roller brake. Will be able to shift gears when stopped.
Engine kit on the way.
Cheers, Geoff

I couldn't resist the visual appeal of the Russian motor kit, had to have it. Here are snaps of the bike with the motor just mocked up and with the moto-banana seat mocked in place. Lots more to do, but it's starting to get interesting. Shift kit is on the way, going to be running it to the smaller of the two front rings, might be a challenge to get it to fit into the limited space, guess we'll see. Thinking about trying some 3.0 tires on this, guess we'll see if they fit.
Cheers, Geoff

Found some more time to work on the Schwinn. Got the Russian motor mounted up with the SBP shift kit. Of course the shift kit wasn't designed with the Russian motor in mind, so it took a bit of hole drilling and filing and fitting to get it to fit. Nothing but good things to say about the shift kit so far, looks to be a well designed and well made system. Still a tiny amount of finalization, but it's mostly there. Spaced the shift kit drive side bearings back about 1.5 mm with a coaster brake snap ring, just enough to keep the Schwinn FF cranks happy with the chain line. Pretty tight clearance on this frame, but I'm really liking the way the frame space is filled up. With a bit of trimming got the chainguard to clear both chains. Still have to string the cables and find a way to make the twist grip look more Schwinn-like. There's a teardrop tank on the way, and then things should really start getting interesting.
Cheers, Geoff