Old Guys Simplex moto-peddle bike
- Thread starter indian22
- Start date
Like the Copper Gator this is a bike builders, bike build. We enjoy watching how another builder approached a problem and solved it. Beautiful work indeed.
Steve.
Steve.
Yes I went to Portland. Met Rick S. from the Simplex site (great guy) Showed me how to extend mine. Aslo " Kart Jockey" and talked to Wayne Mhaffey again. Good time as always. Hope you get to attend one day. You would be welcomed.
I'm glad you got to go & I know talking with the guys will inspire you. Rick S. has a great stretch build going as your're aware & he is doing it right! His posts on the Simplex forum will keep you out of trouble if you follow his lead. I would caution you not to try and mix what I did in with a Stock Simplex frame follow his example. I had to build 90% of my frame from scratch, as the tubes were all beyond redemption & frame has very different geometry. May look similar (I hope) but it's not.
Glad you had a good time, maybe see you there next Summer. Rick C.
Glad you had a good time, maybe see you there next Summer. Rick C.
Great complement & the same back at you...crazy busy day at the shop and trying to get the 396 engine wired up in the El Camino build we're doing (it now runs!!) & get something fabbed for the Peashooter. Not much going on there but roughed our a couple of side plates for the Keystone cradle & located the aluminum I needed for the Faux Peashooter rocker covers, which shouldn't have taken long yet it did.
I made a paper template & laid it out on the 1 1/4" x 3" x 8" aluminum plate & cut off four pieces of 2" round solid bar aluminum to begin with. Not in a hurry but I'd like to see how this is going to look on one side of the bike before before spending a lot of time on this. I'll also add the rocker tubes (motor drive side) at some point but I know that will look great on this motor...same with the fake magneto & left side motor plates. The right side of the motor case concerns me most of all, hard for me to imagine antique on the clutch side, but running the exhaust & air cleaner box on that side will help a great deal. I'll let you know when I'm not having fun. Rick C.
Attachments
Rick, in the fall of 1969 my brother comes home and says that the Chevy dealership where my Dad's older brother works as a salesman has a 1969 Chevelle out front of the showroom and he wants to buy it. Mom, Dad my brother and I all go down to look at it. It's about 8pm and just dark enough to have the lot lights on and the car is highlighted just perfectly.
Dark blue with white stripes and a black interior and an air induction hood. Uncle comes out and Dad says that if they trade in the 1965 Corvair that Mom used they could swing it. Brother gets to use the car when Mom doesn't need it. Now Uncle is stalling but doesn't want to lose the sale so I sense something is up.
Brother gets the keys and fires up the Chevelle. The show room plate glass widows start trembling and salesmen and customer start running for the door to escape the soon to be falling glass. Dad's yelling "Shut the car off." just as I look down at the front fender and see the 396 375HP badge and it has a 4 speed. Sold! They didn't have mufflers just straight pipes with dimples in the pipe to break up the sound.
A few weeks later I'm in the show room talking to my Uncle and I hear the Chevelle's exhaust coming down the road and the car is hauling bumpers. It's the only one in the city and I know Mom's driving it. No sooner do I say "Here comes Mom" and she goes past the dealership at at least 70 in a 30 mile an hour zone. About a block later here comes a 1958 Ford with a load of high school kids in it going as fast as they can in hot pursuit and they are all hunched over staring through the windshield.
Uncle is dumbfounded and I can't wait to get home to hear the story.
Mom is 65, 5'1" and has a tiny build. I walk in and ask her how she likes the car and her eyes are shining and she's pumped up. Seems the car is more than she could have hoped for. When I asked her what the kids in the Ford said to get the race going the look on her face should have been on video. I told her where I was when she went past.
Seems a couple of the goons leaned out the Fords windows at a stop light and yelled "Goose it Granny" so she said I gave it to the little Bastards. For the couple of years that they owned the car my friends would tell me they saw Mom around our end of the city and when I asked what she was doing they would always say "I can't tell you."
I heard more than once about the old lady in a Chevelle that didn't put up with a nonsense if she was challenged. Never said a word about who it was but the stories were a lot of fun.
The old dear passed away a year ago this past June 5th at a 103-1/2 but all you had to do up until the end is mention the Chevelle and watch the smile.
Steve
Dark blue with white stripes and a black interior and an air induction hood. Uncle comes out and Dad says that if they trade in the 1965 Corvair that Mom used they could swing it. Brother gets to use the car when Mom doesn't need it. Now Uncle is stalling but doesn't want to lose the sale so I sense something is up.
Brother gets the keys and fires up the Chevelle. The show room plate glass widows start trembling and salesmen and customer start running for the door to escape the soon to be falling glass. Dad's yelling "Shut the car off." just as I look down at the front fender and see the 396 375HP badge and it has a 4 speed. Sold! They didn't have mufflers just straight pipes with dimples in the pipe to break up the sound.
A few weeks later I'm in the show room talking to my Uncle and I hear the Chevelle's exhaust coming down the road and the car is hauling bumpers. It's the only one in the city and I know Mom's driving it. No sooner do I say "Here comes Mom" and she goes past the dealership at at least 70 in a 30 mile an hour zone. About a block later here comes a 1958 Ford with a load of high school kids in it going as fast as they can in hot pursuit and they are all hunched over staring through the windshield.
Uncle is dumbfounded and I can't wait to get home to hear the story.
Mom is 65, 5'1" and has a tiny build. I walk in and ask her how she likes the car and her eyes are shining and she's pumped up. Seems the car is more than she could have hoped for. When I asked her what the kids in the Ford said to get the race going the look on her face should have been on video. I told her where I was when she went past.
Seems a couple of the goons leaned out the Fords windows at a stop light and yelled "Goose it Granny" so she said I gave it to the little Bastards. For the couple of years that they owned the car my friends would tell me they saw Mom around our end of the city and when I asked what she was doing they would always say "I can't tell you."
I heard more than once about the old lady in a Chevelle that didn't put up with a nonsense if she was challenged. Never said a word about who it was but the stories were a lot of fun.
The old dear passed away a year ago this past June 5th at a 103-1/2 but all you had to do up until the end is mention the Chevelle and watch the smile.
Steve
Last edited:
Steve that's such a great story that I read it three times & it just got better each read!
The El Camino 396 is a 325 HP with Muncie 4 speed, all of which is fresh with a nice lumpy cam, but nothing else. The drive train, steering & brakes reworked.....with a great sounding new,stainless steel dual exhaust. No rust Oklahoma car & the chassis / body straight. This one was built to sell & over the years I've learned not to waste time & $ building them out the way I like 'em, because it's almost impossible to get what you put into them back, around here. Get them street legal with title & mechanically perfect & let the buyer customize or restore to his satisfaction. Of course we often do most or all of that extra work but it's his baby, color & design. As it sits...$8,000. which includes new glass & all exterior chrome & trim installed. It won't sit here long. lol (To the moderators I'm not a vendor & won't tout my wares any further...promise.)
Hope I'm able to get into my small shop (photos) today & accomplish a few things in
& quiet as the large shop is crazy at this time.
Rick C.
The El Camino 396 is a 325 HP with Muncie 4 speed, all of which is fresh with a nice lumpy cam, but nothing else. The drive train, steering & brakes reworked.....with a great sounding new,stainless steel dual exhaust. No rust Oklahoma car & the chassis / body straight. This one was built to sell & over the years I've learned not to waste time & $ building them out the way I like 'em, because it's almost impossible to get what you put into them back, around here. Get them street legal with title & mechanically perfect & let the buyer customize or restore to his satisfaction. Of course we often do most or all of that extra work but it's his baby, color & design. As it sits...$8,000. which includes new glass & all exterior chrome & trim installed. It won't sit here long. lol (To the moderators I'm not a vendor & won't tout my wares any further...promise.)
Hope I'm able to get into my small shop (photos) today & accomplish a few things in
& quiet as the large shop is crazy at this time.Rick C.
Attachments
Rick,
When I read about how rare the the 375hp version of the 396 is I realize how lucky we were to have it. Truth is though that we missed the Corvair convertible 140hp that was traded in more than we missed the Chevelle when it was gone. The dealership sold it for under $3,000 to get it off their lot. No one wanted it since it was impractical as a daily driver and what the motor did to a tank of gas was obscene.
Your El Camino would cost more than what you asking for it here in Vancouver in a restorable condition. There was one about a month ago and they wanted $10,000 with a 350 but it needed everything done to it and it wasn't road worthy.
Nice shop. Serious case of shop envy on this end.
Steve.
When I read about how rare the the 375hp version of the 396 is I realize how lucky we were to have it. Truth is though that we missed the Corvair convertible 140hp that was traded in more than we missed the Chevelle when it was gone. The dealership sold it for under $3,000 to get it off their lot. No one wanted it since it was impractical as a daily driver and what the motor did to a tank of gas was obscene.
Your El Camino would cost more than what you asking for it here in Vancouver in a restorable condition. There was one about a month ago and they wanted $10,000 with a 350 but it needed everything done to it and it wasn't road worthy.
Nice shop. Serious case of shop envy on this end.
Steve.
Steve those 375 HP were the things young men dreamed of etc. The El Camino would sell well on either coast & three times this year "pickers" have bought everything on the lot, two from the east and one from Ca. The Harley Knucklehead motor and 4 speed went to Florida both fresh built $8 grand & I probably left $3,500. on the table...poor folks got poor ways....
The shop was supposed to be my private domain but it's been taken over by the large shops overflow. This Fall I think I'll change the locks & reclaim it as my hobby shop and no exceptions. I've installed quite a few old tools which function as good as new a small 16" Atlas lathe, and another small lathe, a 24" Logan and many other antique machines. It really is just a hobby shop setup & not intended as a for hire business but the guys need the space so...
I started work on the genuine... faux, OHV rocker cover for the 5 speed Honda clone. Think I'll term it the Harley "chuckle head" motor version of the Peashooter flat track HD. Worked a bit over an hour and decided it will work, but will take some time & effort to make it so. Photos show ugly but I see beauty in the potential.
Build safe. Rick C.
The shop was supposed to be my private domain but it's been taken over by the large shops overflow. This Fall I think I'll change the locks & reclaim it as my hobby shop and no exceptions. I've installed quite a few old tools which function as good as new a small 16" Atlas lathe, and another small lathe, a 24" Logan and many other antique machines. It really is just a hobby shop setup & not intended as a for hire business but the guys need the space so...
I started work on the genuine... faux, OHV rocker cover for the 5 speed Honda clone. Think I'll term it the Harley "chuckle head" motor version of the Peashooter flat track HD. Worked a bit over an hour and decided it will work, but will take some time & effort to make it so. Photos show ugly but I see beauty in the potential.
Build safe. Rick C.
Attachments
Rick, I was chuckling myself when I saw what looks like a truck rack in your shop photo. I was pretty sure you weren't building it so the dreaded shop creep had sneaked in. Shop creep isn't a person but the fact that work in the shop creeps into all unoccupied space available.
The real tail twister is when they start using your tools and materials. I was admiring the tools. Lathes built when the great tool making companies were still in America and you didn't push buttons to make it work.
Over the year I learned that it's better to get most of their dollars but not all the dollars. It keeps them coming back because they got a decent deal. As an old mechanic I worked for when I was 16 used to say to me "It's better to get two hundred dollars twenty dollars at a time than a $100 all at once.
The Pea Shooter is forming up nicely. The builder always sees the finished product when it's still on the drawing board.
Steve.
The real tail twister is when they start using your tools and materials. I was admiring the tools. Lathes built when the great tool making companies were still in America and you didn't push buttons to make it work.
Over the year I learned that it's better to get most of their dollars but not all the dollars. It keeps them coming back because they got a decent deal. As an old mechanic I worked for when I was 16 used to say to me "It's better to get two hundred dollars twenty dollars at a time than a $100 all at once.
The Pea Shooter is forming up nicely. The builder always sees the finished product when it's still on the drawing board.
Steve.
Steve that's a rack I built some 10 years ago & it's been on at least 4 different trucks, none of which I ever owned! It indeed creeps back ever so often a couple of times left at the overhead door which means it has to be moved out of our way until the owner gets around to tell us what he needs...which will probably mean mounting it on a new truck. This time no different but he wanted it painted & then mounted, well it's been painted & it's really in the way till he shows back up. I'm going to call it the boomerang rack from the outback, which is where it's headed tomorrow morning.
Guys working out of my boxes never get thing back in the right drawers or on the correct peg or shelf so I spend my time looking for and reorganizing etc. lol, I'm a bit of a craggy old guy as well. What looks like scrap to someone else is often a one off tool I often use, so searching the scrap barrels is also a creep factor. I've lost at least half of my dimple dies over the last few years that I crafted from stainless one rainy day, not stolen because only 1/2 of each die is missing. Another rainy day project I suppose.
As you know Steve in order to fab certain types of metal custom work it helps if you naturally see things in 3 dimensions. I've painted and sculpted wildlife art for many years & learned early on that "reduction" of simple solid forms to form complex shapes, in interesting proportions, are visualizations which come to me quite naturally in sculpting & also aids when drawing and painting too. Bar stock aluminum in rounds or flats lends itself to reduction through grinding it's pretty soft. It's not a fast task but on one offs it's about the only thing that makes sense to me. The steel motor mounts were formed the same way & they were kinda fun. The resulting work ends up looking a bit like it was cast, and is aged & definitely wasn't milled on a CNC. The "Chuckle head" rocker covers will require a lot more work but the size & shape has already revealed itself to me. Rick C.
Guys working out of my boxes never get thing back in the right drawers or on the correct peg or shelf so I spend my time looking for and reorganizing etc. lol, I'm a bit of a craggy old guy as well. What looks like scrap to someone else is often a one off tool I often use, so searching the scrap barrels is also a creep factor. I've lost at least half of my dimple dies over the last few years that I crafted from stainless one rainy day, not stolen because only 1/2 of each die is missing. Another rainy day project I suppose.
As you know Steve in order to fab certain types of metal custom work it helps if you naturally see things in 3 dimensions. I've painted and sculpted wildlife art for many years & learned early on that "reduction" of simple solid forms to form complex shapes, in interesting proportions, are visualizations which come to me quite naturally in sculpting & also aids when drawing and painting too. Bar stock aluminum in rounds or flats lends itself to reduction through grinding it's pretty soft. It's not a fast task but on one offs it's about the only thing that makes sense to me. The steel motor mounts were formed the same way & they were kinda fun. The resulting work ends up looking a bit like it was cast, and is aged & definitely wasn't milled on a CNC. The "Chuckle head" rocker covers will require a lot more work but the size & shape has already revealed itself to me. Rick C.
Steve lest you think I jest I've added a few of my graphic creations...these are rendered in children's Crayons on acid free paper. I've been thinking about doing some charcoal sketches of vintage bikes & if they show promise painting a couple in acrylic and oil paint (mixed media) on canvas. My vision is not what it once was & I can only work on art for brief moments...it's kinda frustrating. Time is growing shorter & I've so many things left to do. It's really a shame that youth is wasted on the young! lol I also have two more novels to finish over the next three years... a prequel & a sequel (working on it now) to one which was published in 2013.
Busy busy & still having fun! Rick C.
Busy busy & still having fun! Rick C.
Attachments
Plug my novel as well 536 pages of action... the folder knife depicted is a prototype self opener (1 of 3) I built 25 or 30 years ago, a contract build for Uncle sugar, nasty beast that one Tanto style blade creates a nasty wound channel. Titanium scales and Teflon hinge, outrageously expensive stainless blade blank, but really takes a keen edge. Hope none of these ever found the streets.
.45 ACP is a competition combat weapon that has seen a lot of use over the years & I've completely rebuilt it & refinished a couple of times...it's retired, mostly. Rick C
.45 ACP is a competition combat weapon that has seen a lot of use over the years & I've completely rebuilt it & refinished a couple of times...it's retired, mostly. Rick C
Attachments
Took an hour this morning to refine the contours on the Chuckle head rocker cover, taped it to the motor...getting there. Photo shows the same engine in the Copper Gator Simplex for comparisons. I'll paint the jug black on the Peashooter as well as do away with all the shiny silver paint. The exhaust will run down the clutch side of the bike just the opposite of the Gator & will be very short, exiting under the right side clutch case again just the opposite of the high pipe exhaust routing used on my Simplex. Instead of copper on the engine I'll use brass to contrast with the aluminum & black of the motor. Same engine but it dang sure won't look the same! Rick C.
Attachments
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AhiYcQfXF6c/UX1SKPIJKuI/AAAAAAAACfQ/BjgK9ZKWgfc/s1600/Image+(184).jpg
I searched Yahoo for knucklehead engine single cylinder and found this.
I see your getting the faux starting!
I like the brass/copper color with the other silver and black.
I searched Yahoo for knucklehead engine single cylinder and found this.
I see your getting the faux starting!
I like the brass/copper color with the other silver and black.
Thanks for the research Measure twice...you made my day. I was certain I'd seen a Knucklehead like single at some point but couldn't remember where. Then I found numerous photos of converted V-twin HD's (including the Knucklehead) with a blocked off jug to meet displacement qualifications for racing. I'd convinced myself that these "leaning jug singles" conversions were what I must be recalling; as all other HD's singles during the twenties and thirties had a vertical jug. You found an experimental Harley single that fits my recollection. I'm adding screen shots of that engine & I'll be trying to run down more info & would appreciate help as well. Good day indeed! Rick C.
