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Early Springer Fork??

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snoopy77

'Lil Knee Scuffer
Does anyone know anything about the year of the Springer Fork in the picture I posted as well as the steering tube
I am thinking it might be an early Autocycle?

Early Springer.jpg
 
You guys are terrific!
its like trying to stump the experts
So here is another unfamiliar Springer part -is it Schwinn or monarch and what year?

SF1.jpg


SF2.jpg
 
Interesting story about this fork. My story: I remember driving to the town dump with my grandfather in the summer of '62 and spotting a '53 Monark Deluxe with this springer on top a pile. At that time, it wasn't that old of a bike. After gramps dropped off his trash, I convinced him to put the bike in the trunk of his car, which was a big deal, as he drove a little rambler and the trunk was small. I was always bringing old ballooners home and he said, "You have enough old bikes," but I won out. I couldn't pass up a free bike with a springer. Now, the second story about this springer. A few years back, I was at a swap at Blue Moon bikes, in Illinois. I had a Monark and this older guy [older than me] was looking at it and said, " I used to work at the factory that made these bikes." Needless to say, we talked for a long time. He told me that when he was there, they had the twin spring fork, but wanted to get rid of it. The Monark twin fork is , I think, the sharpest looking springer ever made, but basically, it's a piece of junk. Bad ride and weak. Never hop a curb with it. Nothing but problems for Monark. Monark wanted to get rid of it and copy Schwinn's fork. He said one day the factory went out and bought a brand new Schwinn bike, with a springer, and solidly mounted it waist-high, above moving, unequal rollers. He said he worked right across from it, assembling the new bikes. Engineers from the company would stand there and watch the action of the Schwinn spring fork and make notes. It wasn't long after that, that Monark ditched the twin spring fork and came out the the single spring, their copy of Schwinn's. Schwinn promptly sued Monark Silver King Co. for patent infringement, and won. Monark discontinued the springer. Monark Silver King Co. went down hill after that. He told me some other interesting stories. Monark did not spray paint their frames. They were dipped. Primer, and finish coat. Everything else might have been sprayed, but not the frames. I questioned him about this, because I can't picture the frame being dipped, but if you carefully look at the paint on an original Monark frame, it's different from the fenders and guard. It was dipped. He explained how the frames hung from a moving trolley line, that ran into a tank of paint and then up towards the ceiling, suspended over a long length of corrugated steel [ Like the type that's used on pole barn roofs'.] it caught the run-off of paint from the dripping wet frames. At the top of the incline of the corrugated steel was a small platform, where a guy would unhook the wet frames and transfer them onto another moving line, where they would dry. He said this was a terrible job. The guy unhooking the frames would be covered in paint splatters and the platform where he stood all day, coated with wet slippery paint. One day he said the guy slipped and slid down the corrugated metal ramp and disappeared into the paint tank. He said they pulled him out and wiped him down and sent him home for the day. The guy rode the city bus to work and never made it home. He died while on the bus from the toxicity of the paint covering his skin.
He told me the Monark factory was not a good place to work. People didn't get along and moral was poor. He said you would have thought that the management would have changed the procedure for painting the frames and maybe added some kind of safety features to the line, but they didn't. After a second guy slipped and ended up in the tank, they started thinking about safety. The second guy lived. I worked on Halsted Street on Chicago's south side at National Lead Co. in the 60's. We made lead paint, and white lead, in this factory that was built in 1906. It was a nasty job, with no safety equipment, and poor ventilation. No Osha back then. Every person that worked there died a nasty death. Me and one other kid are probably the last survivors of that plant. I didn't work there long. I can imagine how it was working at Monark Silver king co. [A lead battery manufacture], that started making bikes. . .
Damn, I think this is the longest post I ever did. . . and no photos too.
 
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Green limousine down Hasted....love it ... Amphitheater anyone .... it was the best ... wrestling... Zeppelin concert and anything else you wanted to see ... the Days
 
During the 60's they used to run dragsters out of the International Amphitheater! On the north side, North Avenue would be blocked off at 1st. Avenue and North to run drag races down North Avenue, from Skip's Drive-in. The 1950's and 60's was fun. All us kids had loads of fun on our balloon-tire bikes and later, with our hot rods. Too bad Vietnam had to come along and ruin everything for a lot of us, but hey, I get on my old bike and I'm a kid again. "On top of the world Mom!"
 
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