Military Simplex

[trooper82]

That’s interesting. When I first started researching I thought that cutting off the bars could be just a military “motor pool modification” possibly to save a little space for loading on the gliders for the airborne operations but then I saw the below picture on “The liberator” web site. It’s a scanned image of the Model G-A-1 from the Simplex military manual dated 1943, no crash bars but the footboards are there. I would think that any pictures in the manual would be of the bike as delivered and not modified after the fact. 

I’ve seen a post on another forum that Simplex delivered about 650 bikes to the Army between 1942 and 1943 (I haven’t been able to validate that number). Simplex built around 11,000 model G's between 1940 to 1945 so I would guess that some were initially manufactured per the military spec and didn’t have the crash bars and possibly as the war progressed the civilian models were just painted OD at the factory and delivered to the Army to meet the contract. 

[Bob Gurkin]

Simplex did a lot of custom bikes for various reasons. I know they made 3 battery operated bikes for an aircraft plant in California during WW2. I rode the only existing battery operated bike some years ago. They used the same control (like a huge foot pedal rheostat) that was used on the trolly cars of the time. The motor is a DC motor totally enclosed that will take up to 36 volts. The bike I rode was supposed to have 2 6 volt batteries in series to give it 12 volts and the builder of the bike did not understand that and set it up to operate off of 2 6volt batteries parallel. Even with that little bit of power it would still zip right along.
I did not ride the 3 wheeler they built for the guy who lost an arm and leg during WW2, but do know where it is. The bike was built to accomidate the fellow with the disabilities and was not used very much. It still looks just as good as the day it rolled out of the factory.

Rick, I will work on copying the book and will post it on here. Needless to say it will take a lot of time.

[Bob Gurkin]

Troop here is the site for the repop military bike stuff. http://www.ziggysmotorworks.com
Rick I am working on copying the book. It's going to take awhile. This thing is about 90 pages.

[Bob Gurkin]

Here is a photo of a Chaplin riding a Simplex. Notice the lack of crash bars, 2 piece front fender supports and blacked out headlight. The exact leather saddle bags are avaliable as repops. These bikes also had very large mufflers with a wire mesh cone shaped spark arrestor on them.

[servicycle]

I know of two authentic G-A-1s that exist.  One is in a private collection in Illinois, the other is in the 101st Airborne museum.  I have been working with a curator at the 101st on the G-A-1 that they have.  Here are some photos of the genuine G-A-1.

[trooper82]

Hello Servicycle,

Thanks for posting the picture. You wouldn’t happen to know the serial number on the engine would you? The reason I ask is that it looks like that’s possibly an early model H. The octaganal foot boards are correct for the model G but the toe operated rear brake pedal came out in 1945 with the model H. The Model G had the brake pedal mounted to the rear of the engine and was heel operated.

[Bob Gurkin]

I can see the rear operated brake pedal in this pic from the military brochure and there is another pedal of some sort directly behind the foot board, but I don't see the kick start. You can also see the oversized muffler in this photo.

[trooper82]

Here’s a pic of the opposite side from the military manual. The other pedal operates the clutch. According to the Simplex history on the Servi-Cycle web site, the kick starter didn’t come into being until 1947.

[chainmaker]

  Nice looking bike!  How are you powering the light? Ive been doing some looking around and am coming up short with lighting solution using a Briggs?

[trooper82]

I haven't got around to figuring out how to power up the lights yet. That's a project for this winter. I don't think theres enough juice in my 3 HP to run the light(s) but I don't know for sure. I've seen some battery/LED lighting kits for bicycles on eBay that I'm considering.

Any thoughts from anyone? 

[Ricks]

I've thought about this for my 3 wheeler build.  My solution was to get an electric start version of the motor, which in my case is a 6.5 hp honda clone.  These motors come with a charging stator to charge the battery.  I'm going to run a small tractor battery, which I'll probably put in the truck bed.  When I get my 53 automatic done, I'll jump back on the truck.  Check out my 3 wheeler thread for future updates.