Just ran across this thread. I've been riding my Huffy Cranbrook build for almost a year now and loving it. The 2011-2012 Cranbrook came with better welds than in the past, and also came with the 12 guage spokes.
As for the tire/chain spacing, I went with the Howard sprocket mount. With just 2 small washers added for spacing along with the included spacers. it brought it out perfect. I rode it for a while with the chain slapping the tire and got fed up with that quick.
I pretty much turned mine into a "dresser" with everything on it I could think of. The only thing I might do in the future is put on a set of suspension forks. Right now I'm running solid Schwinn forks for the cantilever bosses so I could set up a better brakes.
Even with all the added weight, and as big as I am, I just got clocked at 35mph. Not too bad for a bike with ammo boxes for side cases, high rise bars, a windscreen and a lot of other stuff adding weight.
The Huffy's make a great, inexpensive build. There's a lot of better bikes around, but not for the money you can get a good solid Huffy for. The best advice I can give anyone, (on any build,) is to dump the rag joint and get a sprocket adapter. Any adapter would be better than that rag joint. The Howard adapter is made specifically for the Huffy with the coaster brake hub, so it sounded like the best choice to me.
Good luck on the build bro, Sounds like you got it going in the right direction.
fatdaddy.
