51 schwinn panther build

Mick,
Your Panther looks so good. That's a nice, clean build. The homely little China girl has a hot looking big sister I never knew about, it seems.

Regarding the 70mm drum brake. What kind is it? Much as I like the looks of drum brakes (I use them, too), my experience with them is disappointing in their stopping power. If yours is new it may well improve with kind of "seating in" through use, but don't expect a lot from it. I've experience with three makes in that size. This is my experience and maybe somebody else would rate the three differently. I've had a couple of the worksman and neither is much good. The wheels are good and the brake might be OK for a pedal bike, but not for what we're doing. The Sturmey Archer is noticeably better, but is still nothing to write home about. I understand that the bigger Sturmey Archer (90mm) is pretty good, but don't have personal experience so can't say how much better. I have also cleaned up old Atom hubs made in France and in 70mm they are better than the Worksman or the Sturmey Archer. Still not enough though if you've got some weight to stop at speed.

People swear by disc brakes and they are no doubt superior. Your bike would still look good using disc. Just last night I finished lacing up a replacement wheel for my heavy Panther with the sidecar. The new 11 gauge spokes came yesterday from HUsky bicycles. 9.5" long and fifty of them for $19.00 before shipping. The hub has been salvaged from an old Honda 55 trail bike and is beefy, 6" in diameter and looks to be very well made. I hope it works half way as good as it looks. I'll post a photo of the wheel when I have one. So, it may be that you will need to change out that wheel and use it on something else. Take a look around at light motorcycle hubs. Maybe something from a 125CC that was meant for racing. Even ones that look scuzzy will clean up nicely and look like new again. Or go disc. That's all I can suggest.
Nice job on the bike, mate.
SB

Man, this build is looking great! Very nice job, Mick. Looks like your getting every last drop of power out of the engine, too. I know how you guys struggle down where you live getting parts and how you suffer from huge shipping cost, so what you have pulled off there in Tasmania is quite a feat. Good Job!!
Pat

You must be turning heads with that one, Mick. How does it run?
SB

sweet bike there Mick !!!

That's a great build, way to go! It's gotta be a fun ride for sure. Enjoy!

Awesome '51 you have there, I've always wanted one, myself! My favorite of all Schwinns

When one wants a truly awesome O-face-aura bike, one's gotta put down some serious cash! I like what you did there, sir.

Nice! I still think the Schwinn Panther is one of the best looking bikes ever made. You must get a lot of comments about it in your part of the world.
SB

I'd hate to fall off one of those. I was about to make a wise a$$ comment about it needing a motor on it and got to looking at the little wheel in back... could house a little pancake motor hub and have a battery pack just above the wheel... hmmm. Once you start putting motors on bikes it is hard to stop! And speaking of stopping you'd need a disc brake or something, eh?
SB