New simplex owner

[Mo in Mo]

Newbie here, I recently inherited a 1937 from my father that had been sitting for at least 30 years or so. I have got it home and been trying to gather info to start to rebuild it. I contacted Wayne and he was as helpful as he could be. Only problem being he said he has only seen one 1937 complete before, but he was still a wealth of knowledge. He said everything looked original except the compression switch on the motor and possibly the exhaust. Also the clutch cable is not mounted on the handlebar just placed there with tape. Any help would be appreciated on were it went originaly. Also if anyone has a detailed pic of the motor area that would be great. So I can make sure the cables are put in the proper place two of them are off and I want to make sure were they should belong.

I would also like opinions on what I should do with the bike. Should I paint the frame or powder coat it and should I chrome the rims, handlebars and various parts or just paint them. Just looking for what most people have done and what would look better. I'm thinking of getting it running right know and then waiting to completely restore it when I have a better feel for the bike and what I should do.

Thanks,

Lester

[Ricks]

Hi Lester,  that bike is awesome!  I don't know anything about the early direct drive bikes, but you could try contacting Bill @ www.servicycle.com.  He has several bikes and is quite knowledgable.

Please, Please post more pictures.  There can not be very many of these left and it would be nice to see the differences between this and the later bikes.

As for paint vs powder coating, I went with powder on the one I'm doing.  I like the look and durability.  I powdered everything that was originally black, the only parts that will be painted are the fenders, tank and headlight.  I'm also going to have the 3 wheel truck replica that I'm doing powder coated. 

I had thought about not completely restoring the bike when I first started also, but as I got into it, so many things were wrong or broken that I changed my mind and just went for the full resto.

[Mo in Mo]

[Mo in Mo]

[Ricks]

Lester, if you resize the pictures smaller, you can put 4 in each post.  If you need help resizing them, let me know.  1500KB is the maximum per post.

[Bob Gurkin]

You have a very nice bike to work with. I can hardly wait to see the progress on this build.

[Scott]

Hi. That one is sweet! It's got a Harley Davidson gas cap I think. I heard the guy was making them with HD caps for a short while. It's also got the nicer forks in my opinion. Do the forks have brass knuckles?

[rdolan]

Thats a very nice original bike you have there, very cool. I think if that was in my garage, I would tear it down, individually clean every part, do a mechanical resto of the engine then bolt it all back together with the original paint.  It's only ever orig once, and at nearly 75 years old it is an amazing survivor.  The worst thing about it is the wheels, and I bet they'd clean up reasonably well.

[Mo in Mo]

Finally ready to start getting this thing going. I need some help finding a headlight original would be best or something that is compatible any suggestions? I also need an air cleaner any suggestions on that. Just planning on getting the motor running and cleaning it,otherwise I just want to keep as original looking as possible.

Thanks

[admin]

I don't know what the original headlight was on the early bikes, but "it was operated by special points in the magneto, while the tail light used batteries."  That's all the info I have, that came from Pat Williams old website.

Rick

[Mike Sal]

Contact Bill Erickson in Illinois (his website is one of thefirst to come up on a "simplex" search).  He is currently restoring a '37 which used to belong to Gary Wollard.  He can give you some details about the lights.
Mike Sal

[bill marcum]

Hi Lester,
 Nice old bike, and complet. nice to see these old bikes. and it has a front brake too. Have fun restoring it. Bill Marcum

[kartjockey]

It would seem all the early bikes came with the front bike as I have some brochures showing them. Then later they were removed because of the way the front springer responded when they were applied. Does this make sense?

[Ricks]

It would seem all the early bikes came with the front bike as I have some brochures showing them. Then later they were removed because of the way the front springer responded when they were applied. Does this make sense?

Tom, I'll assume you meant "front brake" and not "front bike".  When applying the front brake, because of the leading axle position, the front end rises up.  Feels weird!

[Mike Sal]

I think it was more of a revenue generator than a safety thing, as they went from standard equipment to optional equipment (it may have been standard on the late sportsman).
Mike Sal