1957 J.C Higgins My First Bike Build!

I have had many inquires as to what my commuter bike is and where I got it so here goes.  I built it.  I found an old J.C Higgins for cheap, it was missing so many parts and in such a dilapidated state I got it for little of nothing.  Below are the pictures I took taking it apart not knowing if it would ever go back together!

Here is the front close up.

The front fork.

The original chain cover.

The back of the bike.

Another of the entire bike in the grass.

I know for some of you purest out there you would not have touched the bike or tried to make changes to it in any way.  But I wanted a commuter bike a custom built bike done by myself learning about bikes along the way.  So I first disassembled the entire bike in my front yard.  Then I took the pieces to a local monument engraver Maysville Monument and had the owner sandblast all of the pieces one by one.  He only charged me $20.00!!  I could not believe it this same work would have taken me weeks and tones of harmful chemicals to strip away the paint and rust.  When I picked up the bike the whole thing was gray and rough and in need of paint that day or it would have quickly rusted!  

I used Rust-Oleum primer with a heavy zinc component which after three coats and steel wool sanding between each coat the entire bike as smooth as silk and ready for some final coats.  I used Krylon Fusion Black paint for most of the finish coat but used an almond Rust-Oleum for the tank and part of the chain guard.  The wheels came from American Wheel out of San Diego the seat is a Brooks Flyer, the saddle bags are Brooks Roll ups and the handle bars are from U.S steel I believe is the name of the company though they are all alloy components to reduce weight.

The rear trans is an 8 speed internal hub by Shimano it is a Nexus which is crazy easy to shift quiet and I LOVE IT.  Really as for internal shifters I give this baby a 10 out of 10.  The crank I replaced with a three piece design and went with SRAM cranks I had a lot of drilling to do to get the internal bearings to fit into the adapter but once complete it pedals like a brand new road bike.

Here is the finished product.

Notice the water bottle holder I had to add and the duel headlights which are 270 Lu each lighting up the road like no other with a total of 540 Lu.

Some other views of it.

Here is a view from the back.

Another further back of the same pic.

Here is the front close up.

And finally the top view of the light switch I had to custom hook up I had to take two separate bike lights drill and saw them out to create a custom hook up.  I wanted both lights to come on with the sliding of one switch mounted on top which was the original design.  After hours of toiling with it finally I got it!

There you have it my rust rocket from start to finish if you have any questions about the build feel free to ask.  If you don't like it please just keep it to yourself I love it and I'm the only one that has to ride it!

Peace 
Pedal Strong!