Not sure on the brake lever yet.. the magura motorcycle ones I guess they ran seem aweful huge. I was thinking of trying a brake lever I have already (avid cheapie for my mechanical disks) to see what kind of mechanical advantage I need to make it feel right.
I think the front brake was a necessary item... The front hubs the Schwinns had were pretty flimsey, hell I think the axle was 1/4 all thread. Anyways, I went looking for front hubs and saw that quite a few folks upgraded to the front drums so I researched that. The one that is on there was cheap, is supposed to work, and hasn't changed much since the 70's.. so it is kinda period correct.
I think I am gonna try to actually ride it on trails too.
We have a fixie that we use to go to and fro downtown mainly.. we ran that without a front brake for a grand total of 1/2 day before putting a front brake back on it. I like to at least kinda be able to stop and that thing was hard to ride just using the pedals to slow down. I know this thing has a coaster brake which is pretty different, but still I don't mind the extra braking power.