Repo Simplex

[Bob Gurkin]

This is one of Jim Cubine's "Simplex" bike. He did a great job on the bike. Note the Worksman wheels and electric start Briggs motor. He bent all of the tubing himself and his brother made the tanks and fenders. They were great bikes, but he had so much in them that he had to ask $4,900 to make any money. It's no telling how many of these bikes have been sold as originals

[Ricks]

I saw a couple of these at Portland this year.  They pass muster with someone that is not familiar with Simplexes, but are very easy to spot for someone with some knowledge of simplexes..  The frames are pretty close to stock, but the rear dropouts are made differently.  No belt drive is a dead give away.  The front end is slightly different, and the front suspension rockers are not a nice forged unit, but a flat plate arrangement.

Why he used a triple tree style for the handlebars is beyond me.  Same with the minibike style throttle control.  It seems to me, he could have bought some reproduction parts from Wayne and had a far more convincing replica.

That said, I like his fenders and gas tank!  No rust fiberglass would be a nice option, as these are getting hard to find in decent shape.

Bob, is he still building these?

Rick

[RodneyS]

     that is sweet and i bet it would fly , too.  Yes Quality costs everybody wants it but few are willing to pay what it costs.

[Bob Gurkin]

No. Jim is no longer building the bike. I think Jim's big thing is that he wanted to control manufacturing from beginnin to end. Which is understandable. I too had hoped that his brother would continue to make the tanks and fenders, but when they folded up they totally shut down. They acually had a design that if Simplex had built their bikes this way would have probably run a few more years. It's too bad they weren't able to keep running for a few years. It was a much better design than Simplex

[Bruce]

kinda wondering what this guy used for repo tanks??

[Ricks]

kinda wondering what this guy used for repo tanks??

He molded them in fiberglass.

[Bruce]

OK...I guess they were okay?

[butch27]

I thought that gas eats fiberglass.??

[Ricks]

I thought that gas eats fiberglass.??

Maybe they were coated with something inside?

[Bruce]

Some boats have fiberglass tanks... So I don't know....anyone have one of those for these?

[Ricks]

I don't know anyone who has one.  They did not make parts for sale, just for the bikes they produced.

[pd]

About fiberglass fuel tank resins :

" ... epoxies in the presence of fuel type liquids tend to soften over time and down the road will deteriorate to the point of losing structural integrity. Only Vinyl ester is impervious to fuels, including alcohol. "

It would seem to me that if a tank were made of standard fiberglass and lined with Caswell's , it should be serviceable for a very long time .



http://www.caswellplating.com/restoration-aids/epoxy-gas-tank-sealer.html