Absolutely beautiful. It's about 73 degrees with a light breeze and low humidity which is pretty rare here.

In a month or two it's going to be 100 degrees with 90% humidity. When it gets like that, everyone sweats non-stop. Just a fact of life here.

That is just incredible work. I'm amazed at what you can do.

I intend on plating all the bits and parts with zinc when the time comes. They should effectively look new after they are done. Assuming I don't screw it up.

As far as not plating the milled surfaces I imagine a rubber ball and some corks would keep water out of the head. On the flat surfaces I wonder if tape would keep it from plating? I honestly don't know.

I think I will...

I guess I just need to accept that close enough is good enough. This is a project for my son and I to do and I guess I just need to have fun with it and not stress over the details (which I can do pretty easily, hence the descent into insanity).

I've already cut the old crashbars off so there is no going back.

On the left hand side they are pushed back toward the rear a bit. If you look at the foot boards you can see they are at different angles. The right footboard is pushed back a slight bit.

I was thinking about trying to straighten them but I'd always be able to tell and it would bother me.

I was rightly shamed into creating this... 

Some of you may know I purchased a complete simplex that was listed on here a while back.

This is what showed up.



I was told it was perfect but the crash bars were slightly used. I didn't want to restore a bike with such a glaring flaw so I had to remedy that. Since I'm bound and determined to do everything myself at my own peril I didn't want to just buy them. That would be like admitting defeat. Roughly a year later here I am in the same situation.

 I cut the bent crash bars off the bike I purchased and finally just ordered a set from Wayne. It's been a bit frustrating for me as I've been looking at a disassembled Simplex stare at me from across the room for a while screaming "SAVE ME".  Once I get the Crash bars I should be on track to get started. I have most everything else. (Placeholder to describe just how wrong the previous sentence was). 

Once I get the crash bars I'll weld them up and sandblast and so forth. I'm on the fence about painting vs powder coating. Anyone have an opinion?

I'd like to say thanks too. This is one of two websites I check every day. I love to read the updates and questions. I'm getting ready to start my restoration in earnest in the next month or so and I'm sure the website will be even more valuable to me then!

The Simplex is an awesome piece of history that is downright beautiful in it's engineering and design. Thanks for managing this little piece of the internet for folks to learn/Teach about it.

I shipped that bike I purchased from Las Vegas in three separate boxes via UPS.
I think it was around 700 dollars. After the fact UPS tried to double the price in me but we worked it out.