Old Guys Simplex moto-peddle bike

[indian22]

I just ordered the Tod Rafferty book Tom so we'll be on the same page it seems, but perhaps not at precisely the same time! I'm sure you'll enjoy the HD book with it's great, double page, photographs of the beautiful machines provided by the Barber vintage museum in Birmingham Alabama.

1923 seems about right on the Indian post-spring and others followed suit, as occurs with good ideas, as patents expired or clever innovations were designed to get around patent law.

I envy you the '50 FL pan head it's a good motor, that also looks great mounted.

Rick C.

 

[MotoMagz]

I like what you did with the springs and mount for the seat. I’m sure both are comfy but this is nice on the eyes ...good work

 

[kelly dean]

I've only ever seen pics but from the first time i saw them i thought thats a great looking bike the flow of the tanks and frame are really nice .

 

[indian22]

I like what you did with the springs and mount for the seat. I’m sure both are comfy but this is nice on the eyes ...good work

Thanks Mags I've got some cosmetic work yet to do on the saddle bracket but I build and ride first, make pretty when it proves out. This bracket will likely support additional accessories or at least be capable of securing future components.

Rick C.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

My volume of Hugo Wilson's "Ultimate Harley-Davidson"
came by Amazon at 5PM today.
Thank-You Rick, Just cracking it the photography is excellent. But my home reading load is the Indian Motorcycle, and Harpo Marx memoir two years before his death.
My at work read is "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" by Candice Millard
I have a section of my library devoted to T.R. but Teddy damn near killed himself to fulfil a childhood dream.
Tom

 

[indian22]

I'm certain I'll enjoy yet another Indian tome Tom.

The saddle's bracket will include a spacer between the upper and lower plates to fill the gap & prevent over tightening the main plates & crushing the rack's tubes. It will also help support the oil tank shaped battery pack box which will be shaped to the contour of the tire & the formed radius will act as a splash panel and rock deflector to protect the battery with16 gauge strap, the rest of the battery box will be much lighter gauge.

I've good weather forecast and a ton of stuff still to do to the house before cold weather sits in solid. I feel I've got the hybrid at a point where she will be good to go for the road trip. Tires and 2nd. battery are actually the major missing pieces and neither poses any real problem. I'd like to have the battery mounted permanently for the trip, but bagging it on the rack will be fine if necessary and the two sets of Maxxi 2.2" tires are scheduled for Thursday arrival this week. If the custom battery doesn't arrive on time I have two additional 36 v. lithium packs, like the one mounted on the hybrids downtube that I can bag as well on the rear rack.

Gas motor is running great but I've still that squeak to figure out in the clutch. The chase vehicle will carry spares and tools etc. for each bike and I'll be taking a complete spare motor that's a really fresh duplicate of the one in the bike. I feel we're all determined to finish this ride on our own two wheels, not in the trailer. Though it's not a race we'll not be traveling in a pack, rather strung out especially on the rougher sections of road. I'm by far the smallest displacement bike of the bunch and the only bicycle based build in the group, and I'd not like to hold them back when their running well, but think I can manage a decent pace along the way if road conditions remain similar to what they were this last week.

All in all things are falling into place if we hit a window of good weather that would certainly be welcomed.

Rick C.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Sag wagon? You get a sag wagon? Well at least you are going to put miles on and good on you Rick. I do expect to get some seat time before snow falls.
Tom

 

[indian22]

Sag wagon? You get a sag wagon? Well at least you are going to put miles on and good on you Rick. I do expect to get some seat time before snow falls.
Tom

Yes a little group insurance for us old guys Tom. The perks of age and I'm betting you will get in some riding this Fall.



Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Adios to the annoying clutch squeak. Bucking bar dry and thus worn, flipped ends and greased, good as new. Sure it was simple once I got to work on it. Just do it is a good course of action. I'll be pulling the fork assembly off the hybrid for a bit of width adjustment today. Tires may be in tomorrow or next day so might as well get some things prepped in advance of their arrival. Clutch, throttle and brake housings and cables need replacing as well.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Yet another dismantling of the fork & wheel in prep for mounting new tires and adjusting the fork width just a bit to make assembly easier in the future and centering the wheel easier as well. Time to black out the bright work on the front wheel also. Details are important. Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Maxxi tires and thorn proof tubes came in. I'd adjusted the forks to gain 3/16" of width at the drops to make hub assembly easier to install and also adjusted the leg toggle spacers a little to perfectly center the fork when mounted. I was off center just a fraction before. With these changes I should be able to perfectly align the hub to forks with spacers. Of course the rotor to caliper matchup will change as well and hope I've an offset adapter on hand to allow front brakes to function. I'll get the fork mounted and go from there.

The balance of the bike on the drive off stand is well behind the bikes center of balance with more weight forward. This allows removing the rear wheel with bike on stand, and it's quite secure to work on as I've modified the stand to accept a safety bolt to prevent an accidental stand "fold up". Working with the front wheel off was a problem before I put the rear rack on this bike. Now I just place a heavy 10" section of steel I beam on the rack to counter balance the bike with front wheel off. The I beam channel keeps the beam located securely in place. Before installing the rack I strapped the rear wheel to a floor plate or used sand bags draped over the rear wheel.

Once I get the fork and e-hub mounted I can unmount the rear wheel and install new rubber.

I painted the bare aluminum "ring" on the e-hub so the front wheel is now a pleasing all black, matching the rear wheel, rather than the glaring silver wall.

My test mule is quite used to change, but I'm ready to get some Fall riding in before our first freeze, currently 36 degrees this morning as our overnight low, so a killing frost not far off at this time. Average 1st. freeze here is normally Nov. 7th. here in S.W.Indian Territory. Looks like it will be earlier this year.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

My volume of Hugo Wilson's "Ultimate Harley-Davidson"
came by Amazon at 5PM today.
Thank-You Rick, Just cracking it the photography is excellent. But my home reading load is the Indian Motorcycle, and Harpo Marx memoir two years before his death.
My at work read is "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" by Candice Millard
I have a section of my library devoted to T.R. but Teddy damn near killed himself to fulfil a childhood dream.
Tom

Tom I've enjoyed Tod Rafferty's Book on Indian motos. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. It's a great resource.

My favorite Teddy book is "African Game Trails" written after he and his son Kermit went "safari" for a year after he left office. Definitely not politically correct, but a great adventure story

Teddy was much loved in this part of the country and his signature was on land documents for many early day settlers in the Territory. Including my own families.

Teddy came by private train to hunt wolves here during his Presidency with a local hunter, Jack Abernathy, who captured wolves in the wild with his hands. The President had to see this to believe it and spent more than a month hunting wolves from horseback with "catch 'em alive" Jack & they became fast friends for life. Two books were written about Jack and his two young sons who were internationally famous in their own right...they loved horses and Indian motorcycles and rode both from Indian Territory to Washington D.C., without adult company, to spend time with the President Theodore Roosevelt in the Whitehouse. They made the trip twice and on the last journey they purchased an Indian motorcycle to get them back home. They were only 13 and 9 years old when they began the first trip and two years later neither had ever ridden a motorcycle before they bought the Indian for the return home. The horses unable to make the return home unfortunately. The full accounts were published internationally by the press at each stop along the way.

Teddy appointed Jack as the chief U.S. Territorial marshal & my great uncle Marion was one of his marshals, though he'd served the Territory for more than ten years prior to Jack's Presidential appointment.

The books are still in print and available on Amazon and are truly amazing stories that I can't believe Hollywood hasn't picked up on for movie rights.

My Doctor and buddy is the great grandson of the eldest boy.

Rick C.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Hi Rick, thanks for your recommendation of the books about "catch 'em alive" Jack Abernathy. Amazon just got some more business.
You will have to post some completion photos for our review. Drizzly day here in S.E. Wisconsin and poor weather for a vacation day.
Tom

 

[indian22]

Hi Rick, thanks for your recommendation of the books about "catch 'em alive" Jack Abernathy. Amazon just got some more business.
You will have to post some completion photos for our review. Drizzly day here in S.E. Wisconsin and poor weather for a vacation day.Tom[/QUOTE

Tom "Bud & Me" by Alta Abernathy is the better of two books available about the boys. "The Abernathy Boys" is a good read as well. "Catch 'em Alive Jack" is about the father and the Roosevelt connection "at the big pasture" range in the days of huge open range ranches. The Washita wildlife refuge was one of Roosevelt's 1st. Federal parks additions and is still a wonderful "natural state" mountain & grasslands park setting and that is kept in the native grass condition that existed in the days of Teddy & Jack's hunt. Plenty of American Bison, Elk ,deer and Longhorn cattle still populate this wonderful gift to Americans & foreign guests park.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Tom we also have some weather issues but hope to make significant progress this afternoon as things warm a little & wind dies down. If not I'll do what I need to do inside. I will add some photos the Maxxi Holy Rollers look great on the e-hub, main issue was getting tire, for and frame lined up correctly. I missed my measurements initially on re-building the fork and things went sideways (literally) from there. What amazes me is how well the bike tracked in spite of it all, though I could see the problem I didn't feel it while riding?

Rick C.

 

[sportscarpat]

Hi Rick,
Thanks for the cool post and book suggestions. Just added both books to my Kindle and look forward to reading them. I grew up in a typical suburb but each summer was shipped north with my brother to spend summers in Oregon with my uncles. They put us to work in their logging company doing all the odd jobs the older guys didn't want to do. Was exposed to the woods, hunting and fishing and it remains a big part of my life today.
Pat

 

[indian22]

Hi Rick,
Thanks for the cool post and book suggestions. Just added both books to my Kindle and look forward to reading them. I grew up in a typical suburb but each summer was shipped north with my brother to spend summers in Oregon with my uncles. They put us to work in their logging company doing all the odd jobs the older guys didn't want to do. Was exposed to the woods, hunting and fishing and it remains a big part of my life today.
Pat

Pat one of the things I enjoy seeing on your excellent photo sites is the outdoor flavor you guys enjoy and your wonderful camera work on all shots, but capturing wild life on the fly isn't easy. My children also grew up in a large city and were shipped out for summers in the country, N. Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming and of course Texas and Oklahoma where they worked and learned from the elder's ranching and living outdoors with real cattle men and woodsmen. They grew up quite good & well and so I readily relate to the summer adventures you two must have experienced together and the bonds that must have been strengthened through it all.

I'm certain you will enjoy both books.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Hi Rick, thanks for your recommendation of the books about "catch 'em alive" Jack Abernathy. Amazon just got some more business.
You will have to post some completion photos for our review. Drizzly day here in S.E. Wisconsin and poor weather for a vacation day.
Tom

Got the Maxxi's "Holy rollers" on Tom and everything lines up including the front brake, but still waiting on brake parts, sheath and cable materials to get the brakes working correctly and the seven year old clutch cable replaced. So cables are 'kinda here & there for now. The front tire centered perfectly after I adjusted the fork width and the e-hub didn't fight me this time trying to mount wheel to fork.

Thing gets, down the road like a bandit on the run from the Sheriffs daughter...no drama at this point.

Rick C.



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[indian22]

Granted I've spent all Spring and Summer working on the hybrid and two straight e-bikes: the fat tire "ugly" and my full suspension mountain bike. It's ben fun and informative as heck and I'm not done with them yet, but I'm reminded that I've not touched the Simplex "Copper gator"/hack "gar car" project during this time, and now feel compelled to do so. I've had materials and parts in hand for more than a year and as much time in each day as anybody whos retired and more than you married old timers, so no excuses here with time or money. Inertia is a thing that is hard to start, but once rolling...

First order of "bidness" is find the components before I re-order what I've already received, then remember my design plans and discard the bad ones, really not start from scratch, but flexible to change. Obviously I'm not in a hurry though maybe I should be. Not having my big shops and machine tools after selling my fabrication business & actually retiring does alter things more than just a little, especially in the Winter months, but not totally eliminate progress.

The Simplex itself will receive some additional changes as I've discovered the sealed bearing billet hubs, used on the rear of the hybrid are choice items for upgrading both the front and rear of the bike for constant running at highway speed on the Simplex along with the addition of DOT certified wheels and tires for the bike. The sidecar wheel, hub and tire; including the spare, are DOT rated, sealed bearing components that I have already purchased. Brake components will also need upgrades for the increased speeds and weights involved and all wheel disks employed.

The car will have it's own electric motor for reversing the bike and car combination only and the body shell will still utilize a shortened kayak mounted on leaf springs. Car wheel employed 17"x2.50" moped. The car's profile extremely low, short, spartan and racy to match the bike's "sprint" design.

Rick C.

 

[PeteMcP]

Your Grubee's stance is spot on Rick. Re-worked seat looks great. Once you get the new custom battery case installed behind the seat post you'll have it nailed. Must be one of the best-sorted rides on the forum. Certainly the best hybrid.
Great to read that you're about to resume work on your Gator's side hack project. Really interested to see how things progress on that front.
I just purchased a Lifan 125 4-speed semi auto motor to upgrade my 50cc Honda Solo and I was tempted to consider one of the quad motors with reverse gear with a view to fitting a sidecar at some point down the line. Went with the regular motor in the end. For the time being, I'll persue my sidehack fantasies via your thread instead.