I'm thinking about selling my 1958 Simplex Automatic.  I have had it about a year.  I thought I would put it out here first where a Simplex enthusiast would see it. 

The best I can tell it is near original.  The tank and fenders are the original paint.  The rims have been powder coated and it has new tires on it.  The throttle was non-functional when I got it and I replaced it with a mower style cable.  I replaced both drive belts and the bearings in the idler pulley.  I replaced the original tail light lens with one from Dennis Carpenter, still glass, looks the same as the original.  The tail light / brake light is not the original bulb but are now individual 4 cell flashlight bulbs which work well with the available voltage from the magneto.

I have the original title and it is currently titled in Georgia.  I have driven it a very limited amount, mostly in my yard but once a road trip of about 6 miles.

I have attached a couple of pictures.  If anyone would like to see anything in particular let me know and I will send a picture.  If you have questions I will answer them to the best of my ability.
 
If anyone is interested send me a message to rdavidstinson@gmail.com.

Yeah.  It is definitely richer than anything that I see on anything else.  I was just going by the info in the Simplex manual.  I was cautious of changing from that.

Based on what I've seen of your work in your posts, I'm sure the kicker will be as awesome looking as the rest of the bike.

Are any of you guys running original engines using the original breather and copper pad filter media?

Do you feel that the original style media provides adequate protection for the engine?

If you are running something else, what are you using?

Thanks,
David

My 1958 Simplex has a speedometer that worked when I first started riding although it bounced around a lot.  On a recent road test it quit altogether.

Today I strapped my GPS on the handlebar and went for a ride.  On an uphill grade I got about 12 to 14 mph depending on the grade.  On relatively level ground I got up as high as 31 or 32 mph.  On a downhill grade I got as fast as 42 mph.

Based on a spreadsheet that I put together with the pitch diameters of the pulleys as best I could measure I would be turning about 1800 rpm’s at 32 mph.

Does anyone have any information regarding the running rpm’s of the 150 cc original engine or have any measured data to share?

I just purchased my tag so I can now ride my 1958 Simplex on the road.  I had a bill of sale from the seller, the title from the original purchase, and another title where it was transferred to another state.  Because it had never been registered in Georgia, I had to get a form and have a law enforcement officer come by and verify the VIN before I could get my tag.  When he came by and looked he was pretty adamant that the verification should be done using the number on the frame, which is different from the number on the motor.  After I pointed out that all previous paperwork referenced the motor number not the frame number he ran it under the motor number and it came back as not stolen.

Has anyone had an experience where your bike is registered under the frame number?  It seems odd to me that the bike would be registered under the engine, a component that you would expect may have been changed out over the last 56 years of use.

Sounds like I need to check mine out to confirm if it has the upper bracket.

I rode the bike again today and the pulley is definitely working but the bike just won't pull up a hill unless you already have some speed up.  If it slows down and allows the belt to get back against the bottom it loses all forward motion.

I was discussing the problem with my son and he suggested shimming the movable part of the pulley over to a closer starting point.  I think it would be relatively easy to place shims or washers behind the brackets that the counterweights set in.  That way the position could be fine tuned to get the belt just up off the bottom without having to heat up the fixed pulley.

I will try that approach first before attempting to move the fixed one.