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Dating Springer forks

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filmonger

Riding a '38 Autocycle Deluxe
In Memoriam
Sometimes parts on a bike help provide a date ( date range )........

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This relates to Early Harley Springer forks - slightly off topic but interesting speculation. This is from antiquemotorcycle.org.


"In an earlier post we wondered who built Harley's spring/cushion fork in 1907.

Did Harley build the 1907 spring fork? Or did Harley obtain parts for it from J. Harry Sager in Rochester, New York?

Note: When we say "spring fork" here, we are probably referring to the front leg only -- the "cushion" part -- and not to the back rigid leg that Harley had been building or procurring (in Milwaukee?) since 1905.

We know that Sager ads from around 1907 tell that the Sager fork attachment (front leg) was used on several brands of motorcycle, including the Harley-Davidson.

Earlier, in 1900, "Motor Age" tells that Sager was known for his "bicycle saddle" and for the Sager "roller-pin driving gear" for bicycles, whatever that was.

In late 1906, Sager pops up again with his spring-fork invention, he patents it, advertises it for a couple of years, then drops out of sight.



We already knew that in 1907 Lang paid Sager's rather hefty bill for H-D, but that didn't state what item Harley was getting from Sager.

Fork parts or what?

So I went back into my notes from the Harley account book from 1907 that Arthur Davidson saved. Sure enough, I found a few additional entries that didn't mean much the first time around or that I overlooked.

Because they clarifiy the 1907 spring-fork question I quote them here:

June 3: Paid express charges for parts from Sager & Crosby Co.

Hmmm....more parts, but again what parts? Was Sager partnered with a guy named Crosby at this time? Who was Crosby?

June 8: Package from Sager

More stuff from Sager; again what?

June 19: Paid express charges for recoil springs from Sager

Ah hah! Now we're getting somewhere. Recoil springs from Sager must almost certainly be for the spring/cushion fork. But was Sager's involvement just springs or something more?

May 25: Paid cartage on spring forks -- 50 sets

There it is! Spring forks coming in from some outside source, and while Sager is not specifically named in that entry, who else would they be from in light of the previous entries naming Sager so many times?

Looks like in May of '07 sales were coming in fast and furious and Harley had to order a whopping 50 sets of forks at one time. That's a lot when you figure total 1906 production had been only around 50 bikes.

From this entry we can see how certain components were obtained in batches, probably depending on how many orders were coming in. It's possible that such batches could differ from each other in minor or in important respects. Such a change could come from either end. Either Harley asking Sager to make a change; or Sager telling Harley that some change had been made.

If Harley built 150 some bikes in 1907 as "officially" stated and 50 spring forks were ordered in this one batch, that leaves another 100 fork attachments coming in at different times and in different quantities, and possibly not built to exactly the same specs.

Here we have solid evidence of how Harley operated in the mysterious Woodshed & strap-tank era. Too bad all our questions weren't that easy to answer.

The 1908 pattern Harley fork is another matter. It was changed in 1908, but who was responsible for that change and who built it? Unfortunately we don't have an account book from 1908 to guide us...."
 
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Just some basic info on the Winton Bicycle Co. From "the wheel" 1892.....

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Pat info filed before the incorporation of the co.
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