General Category => What Year is my Bike? => Topic started by: Ed Steele on April 08, 2012, 02:51:00 PM
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Well rick, here ya go, sorry it took so long, hope this helps with year, I am currently rebuilding the engine, but the bike is 100% complete, gonna need some work but it's very solid, the original tires will even air up and hold air for about a week but they are dry rotted bad. in the next week or so i'll be taking it apart and sandblasting it, I can't wait to pull it into the local bike show this summer, trying to find a leather helmet and some aviation goggles to go with it!! it'll be a sight as i am a rather large man and i'm gonna look pretty funny on such a small bike as it is!! thanks for all the help you guy's have given me. I got a hold of Wayne yesterday and will be ordering all my parts this week.
PS, I have a bunch of pics, but i can only put one up per post for some reason, any Ideas?
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Bike looks like a great project but all I can see when O view the photo is the back wheel. It must be in a large format. Have fun working on it.
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Eddie, Nice bike ,wish mine was complete. Good picture , I like how you can see how the wires are run from the front to the back. Good luck on your project. Bill Marcum 8)
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Here's some more pics, think i got the m sized right!!
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Guess not
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I'll do'em one at a time
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Weee
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and one more for the road, sorry, you would think that someone who works on a computor all day would be a little more afluent on one!!
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The gas tank has one filler neck on the right side, with a fine thread cap, the engine is an "M" engine with no relief valve, the tail light is not the teardrop design i've been seeing, and the airfilter connects directly to the carb. , not the one with the intake hose that connects to the frame. Hope someone can help me find out what year this is as i would like to get it registered in michigan
Frame #- 02496
Engine #- M12238B
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Ed, Your numbers fall right in line for the 1952 model year, base on the information we have on hand (Rick, do you agree, since it was also about this time they changed to the brake pedal style instead of the round tube?).
What was really interesting was that your bike frame is only 23 units older than the red Simplex that just sold on Ebay the other day (in Plymouth, Mi). I'll bet both bikes were at the same dealership at the same time when they were new.
Mike Sal
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just out of curriosity, how much did it go for?
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$2,302.77. Not a bad price if it was as nice as it looked in the photos (although we all know how that can go sometimes).
Mike Sal
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Your taillight and air filter are correct for this model.
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Look at picture #2 & the mounting plate for the handlebars. When did they change from curved sides to the straight sided plate? You can see an impression on mine where the old curved tooling was obviously re-used to make the straight sided ones.
Mike Sal
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Hey Mike Sal, mine has the round tube type brake pedal, not the pedal type. I wish i could get the dang clevases on the brake rod to break loose, thats all thats stopping me from removing the rear wheel now, let them soak last night and gonna give'em some heat today when i get outta work
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My bike is a later model ('56) & only has one clevis....at the front. The back of the rod is just threaded longer & it slips thru a pivot at the brake backing plate (there are 2 "arms" instead of one attached to the brake pivot) & has a nut on both sides of the pivot.
Worst case, just cut the rod & make a new one. Mine is just a 1/4" straight road with fine threads on each end. If you have access to a lathe, just chuck the rod up & run a threading die down as far as you need (running at a slow speed). If you can't get the stubs out of the clevis's, I'll bet some of the older parts stores have them, or I know the Cushman vendors have them.
Lots-o-luck
Mike Sal
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Thanks Mike, I'll probably have to make one, as this one won't budge. been burning the candle at both ends for a while so i probably won't get back at it till the weekend but i'll keep y'all posted, Thanks for all the help!!
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If you are not concerned about originality, any kart or mini bike shop sells these. I would think any mower shop would have them as well.
Rick
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Ed, Go to the grocery store and buy you a box of parafin wax. Maybe down the baking isle. This is the wax that canners will sometimes use to seal their jars of jam and so forth. Heat up the item that you are trying to unscrew to the point that when you touch the wax to it the wax flashes off. Shut the torch off but continue to touch the wax to the threads until it quits flashing off and stays in a liquid form. The wax will become quite thin and follow the threads back in. The wax will act as a lubricant and aid to unscrewing the parts. Try to unscrew it while the parts are still hot. Be patient. You may have to do this a couple of times. it will probably help on the clevis pin itself too. Sometimes you just have to get the parts cherry red but give them a second before you try to separate them.
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kartjockey, thanks for suggesting that. I had forgotten to mention that trick. I've used it several times over the years to get rusty Studebaker parts apart. I learned that trick from the guys at Jasper Engine Rebuilding (they're a customer of ours).
Mike Sal
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Well, finally have the bike apart, ended up breaking the brake rod, going to weld some extra holes that were put in the frame up today and then off to the sandblaster tomorrow, does anyone know if the seat mount, i.e. the plate that goes from the neck to the seat is available? or should i just make one? if so should i use spring steael or just plate steel?
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You might check with Wayne to see if he has some scrap frames laying around that he could cut the seat strap off of. I saw a frame in the Wollard collection that had some parts cut off, probably to fix other frames.
Mike Sal