Found this west coast chopper bike at a pawn shop.

Finished for now. Would love a set of nice canvas bags but that is big $$$$.



After

Regarding canvas bags, you would be surprised at what you can find with a bit of searching.

I found these on ebay for forty bucks: FASTRIDER CANVASTAS 33.5 Liter Canvas Double Bike Panniers Water Resistant NEW | eBay


...and here is what they look like, packed full on my bike:

How I received it

Finished for now

You like tan walls or black walls ?

On that bike, I'd go with the vee rims and black wall tires. With crazy paint paint and chopped bars, might as well max it out.

Really cool!

What a transformation! Gorgeous! Love the matching saddle and bar tape/wrap. The pre-paint pics are also stunning and simply interesting to see how they did it.

Here's a couple of mine:

Schwinn Prologue

Before, this thing had sat for a long time. Most of the grease was hard, gummed up, etc.



After, major degreasing, aero bars, riser stem, crimped handlebars gone, saddle replaced, etc.



Greg LeMond Maillot Jaune

Before, pretty mint but those tires.....



After, New tires and white saddle, bar tape, bottle cages, cable housing, etc.



Greg LeMond Ventoux

Before, not bad but nothing special and some mismatched parts. The Bontrager crank was not compatible with the Dura Ace BB and wobbled. Oh and 700 x 19c tires that were replaced before I grabbed this shot.



After, Ultegra crank, new wheels and tires, Brooks saddle and new seat post, wider bars and cushy bar tape.

^^^ Really nice work

[QUOTE=jamesdak;19384011]Here's a couple of mine:

Nice aesthetic choices. I've yet to try a brooks but some people swear by them so maybe it's time.
I especially like how the white finishing touches complement your blue lemond...sharp.

I especially love the prologue, [MENTION=203117]jamesdak[/MENTION]. An 80's bike after my own heart.

Here are Before/After of my rebuild of my -72 Raleigh Professional

That is a beautiful Raleigh!

^^^^^ I second that sentiment. Wow. That fork crown is gorgeous. And really, the entire fork itself as the chrome complements the sultry bends in those fork blades. Beautiful work.

Here is the ~1974 Raysport Turismo frame I traded a ladies Dunelt for last year:



What I wanted was a lightweight, English style roadster like the old Raleigh Lenton Model 29:



The Raysport frame was chosen because 1) It was made of British steel - butted Reynolds 531, 2) It was built by Ian Alsop, a Scottish member of the 1968 British Olympic Cycling Team, 3) The horizontal dropouts will take the Sturmey Archer 5-speed wheelset I bought for this build, and as such be eligible for the Lake Pepin 3-speed Tour.

Here are the After shots...

First, a comparison to the before shot (That is a rattle-can Rust-o-leum paint job):



Then some shots I took this afternoon:









Before I put fenders, racks, and bags on it, this bike weighed 24 lbs on my luggage scale, ready to ride. As you see it here, it weighs 34 lbs, which is still about 15 lbs less than the Raleigh DL1 I rode last year on that tour. The shakedown miles are going well, though the shorter wheelbase and long crank result in some awkward overlap with the front fender in turns. I hadn't anticipated that.

Aside from that however, I'm very satisfied with the results of my winter project.

^^^Wow, what a transformation!

(Maybe?) 1990 Raleigh USA Technium Pro. Swapped in a lighter crank, some heavier (but not rotten) tires, dual pivot brakes, moved the stem shifters to the downtube, ditched the riser stem, electronics and reflectors, cleaned, lubed, wrapped new bar tape. Very satisfying spit n' polish project.

Such a great looking bike. I see these from time to time and always wondered how they perform when the watts get turned up.

Beautiful. How long are the chainstays?

Nice! I've looked for STs here in Wisconsin with larger frames, but never have seen a 1000.

Well! Under my 200 lbs of beastly powerful, manly mashing awesomeness, it feels pretty flexy, to be honest

Seriously, I went out for hills today on my lunchtime ride and it's pretty whippy compared to my best steel bikes or my C-dale. It's a bit smaller than most of my frames so I was surprised how noticeable it was. But it felt rock-solid on descents, hitting 37 mph while pumping pretty hard a couple times according to my GPS. Part of that might be the extra-heavy tires it's wearing. Gyroscopic effect.

Just wrapped the bars on this one with grey Newbaums and cut cables to proper length, so I can say it's done...

Before, as acquired from my neighbor's trash pile:


After:

Those darn Soundians have all the fun!

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Before:



After:

How did I miss this one? You builds just seem so stylish!