Schwinn New World: Reassembling The Back Side

This weekend I didn't have much free time, but I did have enough to assemble the back of the Schwinn New World on Saturday afternoon. Basically I set the tightness of the beatings on the rear wheel, then mounted the rear fender, rear wheel, and chain guard. The only twists on this assembly was the use of an extra anti-rotation spline to hold the fixed cone on the rear wheel in place (wanted to twist due to wear on the keyed washer that came with it), and a revision of the rear fender spacing between the front of the rear wheel and the fender stay on the frame.

I've noticed on these New Worlds that the rear fender often has a HUGE space between the backwheel and the front of the fender. I noticed that this is mainly because the rear wheel has to slide forward in the drops quite a bit to get it free of the bike. However, I also noticed that the massive gap over estimated the amount of forward movement in the rear wheel needed to drop it out of the frame. My solution was to use a longer screw combined with a steel tubular spacer to move the rear fender's front edge back from the chainstay. I moved it back enough to cure the huge gap but not so much that it got in the way of mounting and dismounting the rear wheel from the frame. A happy medium was the result, and it looks pretty nice when you see that very large gap is gone.

At this point, a few things remain, but not much. I still have to rebuild and mount the pedals, mount the brake cables/housings/pads, and square away the saddle situation. I do have a 1940s era men's saddle ready to go for the bike, but I'm considering rebuilding and recovering another 1940s saddle chassis I have  into a nice saddle specially built for the bike. I have yet to decide what to do, but I am entirely sure it will be a period 1940s men's saddle in use. Whether it is a tweaked and re-covered saddle or a pure original remains to be seen, and depends on the riding characteristics of each saddle.