Hey again...I'd initially placed this post in the show your srapyard finds thread....but have found out quite a bit more about this frame....details after original post:
"Hey y'all...our county recycle center won't allow you to take anything....so I started looking and calling around for other possible sources of 'junk'.
Found a local company that does metal recycling...you take them your metal, and they pay you. Asked and found out they will sell also...they charge about double of whay they pay...but what the heck at twenty one cents a pound !
So look what I found...I was looking at the few small engine related items they had...told one of the guys working on the scrapyard that I was interested in mini bikes and related stuff...to which he say's did you see the 'old bicycle' over there ? And points to this 30 foot high pile of scrap !
Well about 5 feet up, I see this rear wheel and frame end sticking out of the pile with stuff covered all over it. I gotta see what this is I'm thinking, and we start diggin' it out.
Turns out the 'old bicycle' is a homemade chopper sort of bike frame that someone chopped up a simplex mini bike frame, and added to it, combining whatever parts they had, to fabricate with this frame: Moped rear wheel, bicycle kick stand welded on, dog gone rail road spikes as foot pegs :thumbsup: , and part of a H-D sissy bar welded on.
Then I look closely at the front forks...they'd extended the originals with sections of a weight bar (knurling still there), then welded tips from a bicycle front fork below the bottom section of the simplex forks...currently sporting a bent front wheel, but forks still having the sction with a 5/8 hole above the welded on bicycle fork tips where one could still use a 5/8's mini bike axle and wheel.
I know it's rough...but I could not let it go to the crusher.
The guy says 'we sort of bent up the front wheel pushing it on to the scrap heap (with the loader), but we did not know there would be anyone interested in it' :shrug:
Then the other guy says...yeah, my neighbors brought this in...say's 'the old guy up the street made it...along with a bunch of other cool stuff...and when he died...they scrapped it all' :crying:
Glad I found this before it got crushed up like the rest of his stuff.
Anyway, check this out....gonna make a cool rat bike ! :laugh: !
My 'used to be a simplex, gonna be a rat bike' frame !
When Tomas (the scrapyard guy) saw how excited I got about this, he say's 'we get crazy stuff like this all the time. If you'd like, i can call you when any odd stuff comes in !' I knew I picked the right day to finally ride up there ! :smile: !
I forgot to mention at 21 cents a pound it came in at 57 pounds, and i paid a whole $12 for it ! :laugh:"
..... so after i'd posted my original post....thinking this was a Simplex mini bike frame someone had mangled...I got to looking at the photo of the little name plate just below the handlebars....I can just barely make out the words Simplex Servi Cycle.
I look up the name, and I find (from WikiPedia)...amongst others...
"Simplex Manufacturing Corporation was an American manufacturer that made motorcycles from 1935 to 1975. Between 1935 and 1960, Simplex made variations of the Simplex Servi-Cycle including the 1953–1960 Simplex Automatic. Simplex was the only motorcycle manufacturer located in the Deep South.
Simplex was founded by Paul Treen in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 1920s with an initial investment of $25.[2] Treen had been a dealer in Harley-Davidson motorcycles and had pitched them the idea of making a lightweight motorcycle for young riders. When Harley-Davidson rejected the idea, Treen decided to enter the market himself and designed his Servi-Cycle.[3] The Simplex Servi-Cycle was introduced in 1935.[3]
Although Simplex Manufacturing Corporation produced motorcycles for over 20 years, the last Simplex Automatics looked almost the same as the company's original 1935 Simplex Servi-Cycle motorcycle. Paul Treen would often visit the factory's tool shop and work with the engineers on new ideas himself, result in continuous improvements to Simplex products instead of annual new model introductions.[2][4]
Western Auto sold Simplex motorcycles under the Wizard brand in the mid-1950s.[1]
Simplex's minimalist philosophy was maintained throughout the company's history, whose designs changed little after 1935. By the 1950s Simplex's designs were primitive, leading to the end of Servi-Cycle and Automatic production in 1960.[4][5] Simplex continued to make minibikes and karts using proprietary small engines[5][6] until 1975, when Simplex went out of business.[5] Treen had sold the company three years earlier, in 1972.[7] Simplex was the only motorcycle manufacturer located in the American South.[6]
A 1935 Simplex Servi-Cycle motorcycle is currently on display in the Smithsonian Institution's America on the Move exhibit.[8]"
I've looked all around, and can't find a photo that I can copy...to show you what they looked like...other than this 3 wheeler:
I think mine was a two wheeler, and if I look closely at the pictures I've seen of two wheeled ones, it looks like the back piece of the frame that holds the rear wheel is off a two wheel Servi Cycle...and that rear wheel may even be original ? (not sure, trying to figure it out.)
I'll add more info and pictures as I found it, but just wanted to put this under the General mini bike forum for folks to see (I realize it's a bit bigger than a mini bike)...but I think given it's freakbike looks, and home made components, I think / hope it's ok here.
I definately think it is a piece of interest, and I am oh so glad I saved it from being crushed.
My plans are still to keep the frame as the (final) designer created it...and still plan to make a rat bike out of it....unless of course I find this is the ultra rare missing link to all the Servi Cycles out there !:laugh:!, or find an original cage to turn it in to a 3 wheeler or something like that !
Robert C.
"Hey y'all...our county recycle center won't allow you to take anything....so I started looking and calling around for other possible sources of 'junk'.
Found a local company that does metal recycling...you take them your metal, and they pay you. Asked and found out they will sell also...they charge about double of whay they pay...but what the heck at twenty one cents a pound !
So look what I found...I was looking at the few small engine related items they had...told one of the guys working on the scrapyard that I was interested in mini bikes and related stuff...to which he say's did you see the 'old bicycle' over there ? And points to this 30 foot high pile of scrap !
Well about 5 feet up, I see this rear wheel and frame end sticking out of the pile with stuff covered all over it. I gotta see what this is I'm thinking, and we start diggin' it out.
Turns out the 'old bicycle' is a homemade chopper sort of bike frame that someone chopped up a simplex mini bike frame, and added to it, combining whatever parts they had, to fabricate with this frame: Moped rear wheel, bicycle kick stand welded on, dog gone rail road spikes as foot pegs :thumbsup: , and part of a H-D sissy bar welded on.
Then I look closely at the front forks...they'd extended the originals with sections of a weight bar (knurling still there), then welded tips from a bicycle front fork below the bottom section of the simplex forks...currently sporting a bent front wheel, but forks still having the sction with a 5/8 hole above the welded on bicycle fork tips where one could still use a 5/8's mini bike axle and wheel.
I know it's rough...but I could not let it go to the crusher.
The guy says 'we sort of bent up the front wheel pushing it on to the scrap heap (with the loader), but we did not know there would be anyone interested in it' :shrug:
Then the other guy says...yeah, my neighbors brought this in...say's 'the old guy up the street made it...along with a bunch of other cool stuff...and when he died...they scrapped it all' :crying:
Glad I found this before it got crushed up like the rest of his stuff.
Anyway, check this out....gonna make a cool rat bike ! :laugh: !
My 'used to be a simplex, gonna be a rat bike' frame !
When Tomas (the scrapyard guy) saw how excited I got about this, he say's 'we get crazy stuff like this all the time. If you'd like, i can call you when any odd stuff comes in !' I knew I picked the right day to finally ride up there ! :smile: !
I forgot to mention at 21 cents a pound it came in at 57 pounds, and i paid a whole $12 for it ! :laugh:"
..... so after i'd posted my original post....thinking this was a Simplex mini bike frame someone had mangled...I got to looking at the photo of the little name plate just below the handlebars....I can just barely make out the words Simplex Servi Cycle.
I look up the name, and I find (from WikiPedia)...amongst others...
"Simplex Manufacturing Corporation was an American manufacturer that made motorcycles from 1935 to 1975. Between 1935 and 1960, Simplex made variations of the Simplex Servi-Cycle including the 1953–1960 Simplex Automatic. Simplex was the only motorcycle manufacturer located in the Deep South.
Simplex was founded by Paul Treen in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 1920s with an initial investment of $25.[2] Treen had been a dealer in Harley-Davidson motorcycles and had pitched them the idea of making a lightweight motorcycle for young riders. When Harley-Davidson rejected the idea, Treen decided to enter the market himself and designed his Servi-Cycle.[3] The Simplex Servi-Cycle was introduced in 1935.[3]
Although Simplex Manufacturing Corporation produced motorcycles for over 20 years, the last Simplex Automatics looked almost the same as the company's original 1935 Simplex Servi-Cycle motorcycle. Paul Treen would often visit the factory's tool shop and work with the engineers on new ideas himself, result in continuous improvements to Simplex products instead of annual new model introductions.[2][4]
Western Auto sold Simplex motorcycles under the Wizard brand in the mid-1950s.[1]
Simplex's minimalist philosophy was maintained throughout the company's history, whose designs changed little after 1935. By the 1950s Simplex's designs were primitive, leading to the end of Servi-Cycle and Automatic production in 1960.[4][5] Simplex continued to make minibikes and karts using proprietary small engines[5][6] until 1975, when Simplex went out of business.[5] Treen had sold the company three years earlier, in 1972.[7] Simplex was the only motorcycle manufacturer located in the American South.[6]
A 1935 Simplex Servi-Cycle motorcycle is currently on display in the Smithsonian Institution's America on the Move exhibit.[8]"
I've looked all around, and can't find a photo that I can copy...to show you what they looked like...other than this 3 wheeler:
I think mine was a two wheeler, and if I look closely at the pictures I've seen of two wheeled ones, it looks like the back piece of the frame that holds the rear wheel is off a two wheel Servi Cycle...and that rear wheel may even be original ? (not sure, trying to figure it out.)
I'll add more info and pictures as I found it, but just wanted to put this under the General mini bike forum for folks to see (I realize it's a bit bigger than a mini bike)...but I think given it's freakbike looks, and home made components, I think / hope it's ok here.
I definately think it is a piece of interest, and I am oh so glad I saved it from being crushed.
My plans are still to keep the frame as the (final) designer created it...and still plan to make a rat bike out of it....unless of course I find this is the ultra rare missing link to all the Servi Cycles out there !:laugh:!, or find an original cage to turn it in to a 3 wheeler or something like that !
Robert C.
