Were the gas tank insignias originally painted on by hand or stenciled? If so, when did they start using decals like those sold on eBay?

Are those high rise handlebars on the red 1959 "Sportsman" original?
Is that the only year Simplex cycles had handlebars like that?

So if someone has an early 40's "push start" bike in a hilly part of the country, will the bike start by letting it roll backwards? Seems like I read once that early bikes would die at a stop light or stop sign. Then one, would have to push the bike a little to get the engine running until the next stop. Is that right?

Are those motorcycle tires or bicycle tires on your Franken-cycle? If motorcycle, where did you get them? Thanks

So... these Simplex bikes top out at 40 mph. Bicycles (down hill) can go no telling how fast? What is the difference betwixt a bike & a motor scooter with respect to tires at 20, 30, 40 mph?

Okay, good. So I must of had it totally backwards. I have spark & I rebuild the carburetor. But, I haven't got the bike to start yet. Not that I've tried that much. It is in a storage unit a number of miles away. I spend most of my spare time working on my 1967  RS Camaro convertible. I'm preparing it for a new paint job (very time consuming). Then, I hope to tackle the Simplex restoration.

Okay. You already answered my question to a degree. If you had to use a metal lathe & mill, that puts a project like this out of my league. I could handle everything else, but the expense & time of learning that much metal working skill is beyond my scope for now. I have watched literally hours of metal lathe "shop class" with mrpete222 on YouTube aka TubalCain. He's a (retired?) high school shop teacher that makes really good videos on anything imaginable concerning metal work. He even shows steps in smelting & forging a small steam engine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuZEQe4Q3g4&t=13s

I really wish you had made an extensive YouTube video for you second truck. That would have been great fun to watch an educational video concerning the details of all the steps & fabrication(s) involved.  

BTW... Which part(s) did you have to fabricate to the extent you used a lathe & milling machine on them? Just curious. Thanks

Similar to the operation of CVT drives as Rick mentioned in his post. No need to release the pulley to idle the mechanism does it all...thus the term automatic.

Rick C.

Well this post was a real eye opener to me. I went over to YouTube & typed in CVT. I didn't have any idea that's how the pulley system on my Simplex Automatic worked, or how a cars's automatic transmission worked. I thought each "pulley" on the bike was just a regular old pulley like on the front of an old V8 engine basically.