# how many double duty forks are out there?



## Obi-Wan Schwinnobi (Jul 5, 2013)

How many of these do you think are still alive?
Wonder if you could get a chrome one equipped to a ranger? Or has anyone seen a 40 model with this fork and first year fender light? I swear I saw one once with this setup for sale in parts here on the cabe? Was it Martys?.. Or Patrick military monarch had one fs?


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## Larmo63 (Jul 5, 2013)

They are very rare. A handful have shown up here that I've seen.

Marty's is the only one I've seen in person.


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## aasmitty757 (Jul 5, 2013)

I think there are probably more out there than we think.
I had a tall frame Schwinn that had non locking DD fork that I was thinking about getting chromed for a Ranger Champion but decided against it.
Only 2 DD locking ones left in the stable.


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## bike (Jul 5, 2013)

*Pedal Pusher in Newport in the late 80s*

had a dx with a DD and a milsco accessory saddle- bad to the bone!
I do not remember who was running the shop but not Gertrude- Larry?
That was a lot of brain cells ago,..
I have had 3. never on a bike.


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## Obi-Wan Schwinnobi (Jul 5, 2013)

bike said:


> had a dx with a DD and a milsco accessory saddle- bad to the bone!
> I do not remember who was running the shop but not Gertrude- Larry?
> That was a lot of brain cells ago,..
> I have had 3. never on a bike.




Wow that would be a killer bike to see!.. Wonder if its still around?


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## dxmadman (Jul 5, 2013)

*Double Duties*

I have never seen one in person, I have seen faint pics of em, any body have some close up's? Also did they make em for ladies bikes as well? And 24 incher's  maybe even 20's? Or was it just an option for high end bikes? Was it just a one year thing? Dx


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## Freqman1 (Jul 5, 2013)

Here are some pics of Marty's 38 DD Canti. V/r Shawn


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## fordmike65 (Jul 6, 2013)

fatbar said:


> How many of these do you think are still alive?
> Wonder if you could get a chrome one equipped to a ranger? Or has anyone seen a 40 model with this fork and first year fender light? I swear I saw one once with this setup for sale in parts here on the cabe? Was it Martys?.. Or Patrick military monarch had one fs?




Was it this one?

http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showth...enter-wheel-set-Morrow-rear-brake-125-shipped


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## cyclingday (Jul 6, 2013)

Most of the Double Duty forks out there are the longer girls version that have been cut down to fit a boys frame. Not an easy task, since the upper fork legs have to be shortened along with the steerer tube.
An original paint locking boys Double Duty fork, is just about as rare as they come. But what I found, during the parts gathering stage of my project, was that the upper truss plate is the rarest Schwinn part there is.
I only ever saw one original one of those, and it couldn't be had, not even for $500! I made an offer and never heard back from the guy. I was surprised that he didn't take it, because I don't think he needed it, or even knew what it was.
Sometimes, a really strong offer on something can scare them away. They must think that it's got to be super valuable if some idiot is willing to throw that much cash at it.

In my quest for parts for that two tone green 1939 Cantilever Autocycle. I gathered 5 hanging tanks, 3 double duty forks. 3 crossbar speedo assemblies,3 pogo seats,5 fender bombs,4 sets of Seiss lights,3 shorty brake levers, and 3 big drum forebrakes. 5 lower wishbone truss plates, but in all of that, I never could find the upper truss plate. So, to me, even rarer than the forks itself, is that stupid little truss plate.

( You might ask, why did I gather so many parts? The quest for perfection. When a cleaner og. part showed up, I would upgrade it and sell off the lesser piece.A restored bike needs to have nearly n.o.s. parts in every detail.)

So,I had to make the one that is on the bike, because an original proved to be nearly impossible to find.

I was so bummed, when that original showed up, because it was on a rat bike that had a standard truss fork, but the top plate was the ever elusive double duty truss plate, and the guy wouldn't sell it, even though he didn't need it. Not even for $500 dollars!


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## aasmitty757 (Jul 6, 2013)

*parts*

Wow, Marty. That's somewhere is the range of $31,000 in parts gathering. It was worth the hunt, that's one very fine bike you have!


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## aasmitty757 (Jul 6, 2013)

Just to add, pretty sure both of my DD forks have been cut down from girls forks. Doesn't bother me, just glad to have them.


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## militarymonark (Jul 6, 2013)

marty's DD locking was originally on a 40 that I picked up in petersburg IL. I had no idea what I had but the price was extremely right and it was something i've never seen. But I knew I couldn't give the bike justice but I knew marty could. This bike is amazing. I've seen it in person. At the time when I had it and talking with wes pinchot I was the 3rd person known to have a locking DD. But since mine i've seen about 5 or so show up. I do know of one person that has quite a bit of prewar schwinn stuff purchased from the schwinn auction back in the day and he told me that there was a few boxes of double duty forks. There are a lot of stuff in hiding right now. We might see these things turn up in about 30 years.


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## cyclingday (Jul 6, 2013)

aasmitty757 said:


> Wow, Marty. That's somewhere is the range of $31,000 in parts gathering. It was worth the hunt, that's one very fine bike you have!




 Thanks, for the tally, Kim. I know, pretty crazy!

   Once I decided to go all out on the project, I kind of took a money's no object approach on it.
 Once I had the pieces that I wanted, I blew out the extra stuff.

 I had enough stuff left over to build two more complete Autocycles, so at least the hobby got two more bikes out of the deal.

 I'm really glad I did it, because there is no learning experience like completely and accurately restoring something. Though, I don't think that I would ever do it again.

 The last detail I had to aquire, was the screw top bezel Seiss lights, and I have since corrected that, since those pictures were taken by Shawn.

So now, all of the telltale stuff for 39 has been taken care of.
 Dated Morrow hub, dated crank, dated frame number, low rear fender brace, and screw top Seiss lights. I went with the chrome steel double adjustable stem instead of the alloy one, out of personal preference. both were available in 1939. The alloy one was considered more high tech and deluxe at the time, so it would've been more correct,but I just think that the chrome one looks better.


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## Obi-Wan Schwinnobi (Jul 6, 2013)

aasmitty757 said:


> Just to add, pretty sure both of my DD forks have been cut down from girls forks. Doesn't bother me, just glad to have them.




Cool that girls bikes had them and would be interesting to see an og girls with one!Anybody??
 I bet the girls ones are getting sorta rare as well if people are trimming them! Question, When they are cut down, are they then identical to a boys? Or are the legs wider on top since they sorta taper. I bet there are boxes of nos stuff hidden away.. It would be interesting to see.. Can you imagine prewar nos parts still in factory boxes.. Pogos crossbars wow!


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## cyclingday (Jul 6, 2013)

fatbar said:


> Cool that girls bikes had them and would be interesting to see an og girls with one!Anybody??
> I bet the girls ones are getting sorta rare as well if people are trimming them! Question, When they are cut down, are they then identical to a boys? Or are the legs wider on top since they sorta taper.
> 
> Most of the cut downs are botched, so it's very easy to tell. The extra length in the girls version, is all in the straight section just above the fork crown. So, you have to cut the upper legs off just at the fork crown, and remove about a 1/2" then re weld the legs to the crown. The steerer tube has to be shortened and re threaded while you have the upper legs off.
> If it's done like this, and is done by a quality fabricator, then a cut down girls fork can be indistinguishable from a boys version. That's where known provenance or original paint comes in, if you're looking for a bona-fide original boys locking double duty fork.


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## Aerocycle36 (Jul 6, 2013)

*DD fork*

I bought a 37 C model frame that had a DD fork on it a few years ago off of Ebay for 300 dollars. It's a tall frame so I'm fairly sure it's a girls fork. It didn't have the top truss plate either...


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## TheSaint (Jul 6, 2013)

Aerocycle36 said:


> I bought a 37 C model frame that had a DD fork on it a few years ago off of Ebay for 300 dollars. It's a tall frame so I'm fairly sure it's a girls fork. It didn't have the top truss plate either...




Why do you think it was a girlie fork and not original to the tall frame it was on?

Just asking?

theSaint


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## Aerocycle36 (Jul 7, 2013)

*Tall frame*

Why do you think they would make 2 different forks that had the same dimensions? Being that it's a C model frame with a straight downtube, I believe that the frame was made at least a year before the fork...


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## TheSaint (Jul 7, 2013)

Semantics, do we call it a Tall Frame or Girl's Frame DD Fork.....


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## frampton (Jul 7, 2013)

Here are some pictures for comparison. Standard frame locker with original paint and tall frame with original paint.


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## Obi-Wan Schwinnobi (Jul 7, 2013)

frampton said:


> Here are some pictures for comparison. Standard frame locker with original paint and tall frame with original paint.




I learned something, never noticed the indents on the legs before. So what's the problem with these again? They break easy?


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## bike (Jul 7, 2013)

*No problem*

they were an extra cost option offered in the first year of the springer- -manywent for base or springer and DD was kind of lost--- well that is the story I heard and i am sticken to it


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## Aerocycle36 (Jul 7, 2013)

*good question*

Good question on what to call them. It seems that at least half of these forks are "girl's" forks but yet of all boy's frames made in 1938, the percentage of tall frames was nowhere near half. just looking at it from a percentage aspect, it seems that the majority of those tall forks were meant to end up on girl's bikes...


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## Aerocycle36 (Jul 7, 2013)

*Problems*

I haven't done anything to restore my fork and it's bent back rather severely.  I've seen pictures of other DD forks that were bent back like mine...


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## cyclingday (Jul 7, 2013)

The forks themselves were strong enough to withstand normal use, but the term Double Duty, implied that they were extra rugged and could withstand more abuse. Because of the triple tree type of construction, it put a large bending load on the lower fork legs right below the crown. Couple this with a forebrake, and the slightest hit would cause the fork to collapse backward.
I'm sure, the first thing a kid did, with his new Double Duty equipped bike, was to try it out by ramming into the curb.
This is why so many girls forks survived, and almost no boys versions did. Girls didn't tend to ram their bikes into curbs with a hand full of front brake.


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## TheSaint (Jul 7, 2013)

What else is on tonight?


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