The bars and the big reveal

The bars, well these came from a mates shed along with the seat. Originally from an old bike with rod brakes, the rods were long gone but the lugs on the bars were still there an the stem was brazed to the bars. I was very surprised to find that the lugs for the rods un screwed from the bars and a little hemispherical nut fell out the end of the bars once the lugs were fully un screwed, a little heat from a blow torch was a help here as they were badly rusted.
The stem was a little harder to remove. I cut a slit along the stem in two places half expecting to find the bars were in two halfs but they weren't. I applies heat to the stem where it was round the bars with an oxy acetalene torch to melt the braze, then with the bars clamped firmly in a vice and a thick welding gauntlet I was able unpeel the stem from round the bars. The double slitting of the bars was a bi mistake as I was left with a piece left stuck to the bars, more heat and some screw driver prizeing action helped get rid of it. All I had to then was weld up the holes from the lugs, which I did with the oxy, my first time properly gas welding and it came out ok with a bit of cleaning up. Here's the finished product,







Well that's a lot of the first mods covered so I guess its time for the big reveal to show you the full bike as it stands so far