Drive side rear 1974 Varsity by Richard Mozzarella, on Flickr

Drive side front 1974 Varsity by Richard Mozzarella, on Flickr

Non-drive side front 1974 Varsity by Richard Mozzarella, on Flickr

Oh, & it's 29 pounds as pictured. But it stops on a dime and it rides like it's on rails. On a local hill I hit 43.4mph (52kph) and hardly felt the need for hands on the bars. Ridiculously stable and carves corners like it's nobodys business.

I installed a rack with 25 pounds of gear and moved the panniers all the way forward against the stops. I still have heel clearance (1/2 inch) and the effect of being loaded IS much less noticeable than my short chain stay bikes. With my usual morning commute load, the bike balances level midway on the front half of the saddle. The bike is heavier loaded (obviously) but the bulk of the weight being in front of the axle mitigates any front end lightness/float quite well. Indeed, with the bike I've been using, the bike balances about 3 inches behind the seat! This one is so much better.

It should be noted that this bike doesn't "feel" faster than my conventional bikes, but I assure you it tracks better, straighter, and I found myself in the high teens/low twenties more than I would've expected considering Sunday was a "friendly" ride with a co-worker where I wasn't even concerned about pace.

Quite the amazing rebuild! But, I have to say, I was hoping for amazing lime green forks. Oh, I very jealous of your gearing.

All else aside, I like low rider front racks whether mounted on braze-on mounts or with clamps. I have several tourers fitted with Topeak racks and they have done well for me I definitely prefer my touring load distributed about equally between front and rear. I put my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad cross-wise on top of the rear rack, strapped down with toe clip straps. I put my valuables, wallet, phone, camera, meds, etc., in an easy to disconnect handle bar bag which has a shoulder strap that tucks into the front pocket. FWIW. /K