Tom ,

Good job .
The mechanism looks interesting . And the spring is a simple but very nice touch .

But , those will never work . I mean look at the cross hatch ... not even close . LOL


Pete .

I sent out another load of parts to be chromed.  They told me 6 to 8 weeks, but they were done in 5 weeks.

Just a couple more pieces to be done and I will have a complete bike chromed except for the frame and tank.  My idea is to skip chroming the tank and use the Simplex stick-on chrome tank covers. 

Why do I do this?  I don't know but it feels good!

I have been making some early dummy grips.  Jim Lokai is planning on bringing his direct drives to Portland this year and all of them have been missing the left grip.  The pics show my version of a reproduction.  I tried to match those of an early G model.

Jim sent one of his twist grips to me for dimensions.  I was pretty happy to see it as I had wondered how they worked.  They always seemed to be stiff but actually have a tension ring that make them that way.  Infinite cruise control!

I found some nice shrink tube that was sold as fishing pole grip (and other sport handles).  It had virtually no shrinkage long ways and it only shrank on the diameter.  I sent him enough grip material to do the right side on each bike as well. 

So now he will have matching grips.

That bike needs the side covers!  It looks like he did nothing about the flywheel cover or the air cleaner either. So close, he should have done it right!

At last, through a heads up from Rick the Serviglide that was once owned by Gary Wollard and then by Wayne Mahaffey has been found.  Some of us may recognize it when it was green as Wayne brought it to Portland several years back.  It was then sold to a new home in Washington State.  After that the bike was disassembled, repainted and chromed.  I contacted this person to get the engine number as the curiosity was killing me.  He had taken several photos of the restoration.  He has done many motorcycle restorations. 

The engine number is 39D 323.   The Simplex manual clearly defines the 1939 from the 1940 in that the 1939 uses wingnuts near the rear axle to fasten the side covers while the 1940 uses springs.  If you zoom on the green bike photo you can see the wingnuts.

It has been stated that Simplex made four 1939s and around one hundred of the 1940s.  In addition, the 1939s were green while the 1940s came in bright silver for its safety at night.