Old Guys Simplex moto-peddle bike

[indian22]

I miss my small shop the most 25'x50' didn't cost much to heat and as it turns out I regret letting it go, but my health is much improved so I don't mind not having the big and the little shops to work in, most of the time. What I miss are my lathes, mill and my commercial Huth hydro tube bender & vast die sets 1/2" through 3" diameter tube sizes. I do have access to others equipment but seldom ask to use any of them.

Being single allows me to "decorate" the interior of my home without restrictions and their display will please others and me as well.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and blessings into the NEW year & beyond!

Rick C.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Merry Christmas Rick.

 

[indian22]

Merry Christmas to you both as well Tom. May & joy be daily in your life.

Rick C.

 

[curtisfox]

MARY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

 

[indian22]

MARY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

To you as well Curt enjoy the holiday of & hope!

 

[indian22]

Wishing a great start to your new year. Just think of we have 9 more chances to get 2020 right. Twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three......practice makes perfect and twenty twenty hind sights should be easier to make corrections as we go. It's a win win opportunity to make better choices don't you think?

I'm starting out with modest personal expectations for myself & have a goal of making today better than yesterday.

Rick C.

Still having fun!

 

[Tinsmith]

So far...............So good!

Dan

 

[Oldbiscuit]

Wishing a great start to your new year. Just think of we have 9 more chances to get 2020 right. Twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three......practice makes perfect and twenty twenty hind sights should be easier to make corrections as we go. It's a win win opportunity to make better choices don't you think?

I'm starting out with modest personal expectations for myself & have a goal of making today better than yesterday.

Rick C.

Still having fun!

Rick, I agree with you and your goals ! That was my goal last year, but it just seemed that the deck was stacked against me, so this year I ask for a new deck !!

 

[Tinsmith]

There ya go Tom! Good for you. Mine wasn't "stacked" but dealt a pretty challenging hand. Gotta keep going
Good luck to all this year.
Dan

 

[indian22]

I've completed painting window trim though I've a lot of interior painting to go. I've a lot of windows in just three of the rooms there are 120 panes of glass!

Five bikes inside at the moment & some rearranging to figure out. It's a process.

The "Pea shooter" and electric V-twin share a room.

Fired up the Simplex "Copper gator" yesterday and took a short ride. Fired right up after sitting for several months. We have enjoyed several great afternoons for riding and I did! Though I love to build it's always the ride that matters most to me. It is an anxiety remover that helps me focus on the blessings I have and what I can actually accomplish with my time instead of expending energy and time, fretting about things I've no influence on or control over. These potential concerns are quite numerous, real and imagined or contrived, and fabricated/controlled far above my pay grade!

Still having fun.

Rick C.

 

[Tinsmith]

Beautiful work Rick. Always nice to see your bikes.

Dan

 

[fasteddy]

The bikes are an inspiration, Rick.

Steve.

 

[indian22]

Beautiful work Rick. Always nice to see your bikes.

Dan

Thank you Dan. Retiring some bikes, at least for a time, refining some others and planning where I go from here. I've a couple of things planned for the Spring but not yet fleshed out in my mind. At the moment just broad strokes on another V-twin look with a flat head for one project more of a thirties flat track style perhaps. Electric hub powered though.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

The bikes are an inspiration, Rick.

Steve.

Steve Thanks for the support! There's a lot of mutual respect as well for you and those who've continued on this past year posting and following on the forum. Those who have builds underway also inspire others to get started or keep plugging away on builds. We all have periods where the motivation just isn't there yet following others can be a spark that gets us going. I started a sidecar project for the Simplex "Copper gator" & laid it aside for over 3 years, but your sidecar for your niece got me thinking about getting back to it. Moving bikes inside will provide some room in the garage for building inside rather than wait for the perfect weather outside. So inspiration is where you find it motivation puts wheels under it!

Rick C.

 

[fasteddy]

I have the frame for my nieces sidecar marked out ready to cut. Art Ritis and I couldn't come to an agreement about using to one sunny day we've had to cut it so it's wait and see what happens on the next sunny day.

I'm using 1-1/4" x 1/8" hot rolled steel for the frame to keep it as light as possible.

All we can do is what we can do. I find that even a little bit of work in the week makes life interesting.

I found a sidecar much like you are building. It's a Norton motorcycle and sidecar used for racing. As my machinist granddad would have said, "Not but a bit of tin nailed to a plank."

Steve.

Redirect Notice

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Somebody say English side car? Matchless-Vickers Military Motorcycle (silodrome.com)
Tom

 

[indian22]

Nice image link Steve and it displays major elements of my design thoughts and really captures the extremely narrow, short and low height I'm incorporating. My Simplex is super low, long and has just 3" of ground clearance and definitely styled to look racy. The Norton rig shown in your link features the dimensions of the hack and the streamline shape I'm envisioning plus a wheel that stands a couple of inches shorter than the bike rides on and the axle height for the car allows the sidecar to ride really low. I'd like the top of the car to be at about the valve cover height of the engine.

I'm adding a few photos for those who weren't forum members in 2017 to catch up and to jar some old timers memory for those that were.

The photo of the girl in the hack shows stance, shape and diminutive size of the racing sidecar, but I'll not have a leaning wheel feature on mine.

Rick C.

 

[indian22]

Somebody say English side car? Matchless-Vickers Military Motorcycle (silodrome.com)
Tom

Quite a bit more fire power than I'll require, but about right for traffic altercations in L.A. or Houston.

Vickers is nice though I favor our own Browning Ma deuce!

 

[indian22]

I've got a spare set of these HD style forks & think I'll mount on the electric V-twin and see if they suit me. Many of the forks I favor have gone way up in pricing recently or are not readily available. I ordered a pair of cycle style bar clamps to use in place of the bicycle style bar stem and this will lower the handle bars more than 2" which is a plus with this swap.

I will add a couple of tube risers to the girder forks I take off the v-twin to also use bar clamp bolt up on the un-sprung fork. That way I can use either fork on the V-twin & the bars will ride lower than is possible with the ahead stem setup, which really does not appear vintage or racy.

One additional benefit is that I can run a 26x3 inch tire with this springer fork and that could look pretty good as well and the rear is plenty wide enough as well though the tool box might have to be eliminated because the 3 inch stands so tall.

Rick C.

Rick C.

 

[PeteMcP]

Nice looking springers Rick. I reckon they'll look splendid on the e-V twin.
Speaking of price hikes..... I just noticed the drop loop frame I recently purchased on AliExpress is now inexplicably advertised by the same seller at more than twice the 112 quid price I paid. Was seriously contemplating buying a second frame to stash for a future build - but not at 240 quid.