Confused

[Stuart]

I'm confused. I'm being told my Simplex id # 07655 is a 1954 and even the registration says its a 1954. 07655 should mean it's a 1955 so I thought it could be a 1955 sold in 1954.  I just read "Simplex Servi-Cycle" by Gary L Wollard and on page 33 he sayid that no Simplex bikes were sold during the calendar year 1954.
So do you see why I'm so confused ?

[Ricks]

Are you speaking about where Gary wrote " 1954 units, not sold during the calendar year for any number of reason, might carry the 1955 anniversary decals?  If so,
he was just speaking of left over bikes that had the 1955 Anniversary decal that were built in 1954.

That bike of yours is without a doubt a 1954 model.

[Stuart]

Then any idea why the ID # ends in 55 rather than 54 ?
Thanks
Stuart

[Ricks]

The frame numbers are in sequence. Yours just happens to be the 7655th bike built after they started putting frame numbers on the bikes. Look at the registry and you can see the approximate breakdowns through the years.

[Mike Sal]

To clarify further, your bike is the 7,655th "frame" build after the introduction of serial numbers.  Simplex didn't pay too much attention to frame & motor numbers.  They build the parts, numbered them, then put them onto the shelf to await assembly (or sales thru service parts).  When it came time to assemble, they just grabbed the closest one to them & slapped them together.  That's why the frame numbers which are near the beginnings or ends of the calendar year are fuzzy....they might have been grabbed in December or January & no one minded.

Another complication is that any unsold bikes from one year were just sold as the next year's model (like lawnmowers, etc).  I read somewhere that there were a lot of left over '57's which got sold as '58's.  Kaiser Frazer did the same thing in '52/'53.....they just re-tagged the left over '52's as '53 model cars.
Mike Sal