Baggers
Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Simmons pioneered the concept of “rebuilding and “reengineering machine tools critical to rapidly restoring America’s decimated Pacific Fleet. After World War II until the 1980’s they continued to build machine tools for industries such as power generation, ship building, weapons and railway. In 1984, the company’s current Chairman and owner, Professor Hans J. Naumann, decided to invest in Simmons and began to focus on the company and the railway industry. While engaging in new projects throughout North America, Simmons was introducing its technologies and developing relationships in China, Russia, and India, as well as key markets in South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa.
In 1991 the company landed its first production line contract in Qiqihar, China, and established its first foreign sales and service office in Bejing. This would soon be followed by offices in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, Guadalajara, and Mexico. In 1992, Simmons expanded into Europe by Professor Naumann establishing in Chemnitz, Germany. This allowed Simmons to access European tool and railway technology. In 2000, Simmons acquired another company, and then the NSH group was officially founded. Then in 2006 the company was well established in China and manufacturing an under floor wheel lathe utilized by railways throughout China and a critical part of the China’s high speed railway network.
Simmons is now celebrating its centennial, which is demonstrated in its slogan: Keeping the World on Track for 100 Years.” Now you can only imagine how excited we are to deal with a company of this magnitude, with approximately 670 employees worldwide, and play a part in promoting their celebration. A very close friend to my father, Brian Wright, a machinist at the plant in New York, decided to jump onboard and help us with this project. I figured this would be an easy build. We wanted to start in January, thinking we would have plenty of time before the anniversary. Then we decided to wait until Cincinnati to see some new products before we started. Never happened, so let’s wait until after Daytona.
Before we knew it, it was April and we finally have the Ness bags, rear fender, and a disassembled bike. The concept of this bike is for display at the trade shows and international exhibitions to promote the components that Simmons manufactures. The rear is similar to a steam locomotive from the early 1900’s, with an integrated billet taillight in place of the locomotive headlight. Early 1900’s Simmons manufactured early steam engine components.
The side bags are replicas of some of the European trains, which components are also manufactured by the company, and the tank is the famous NY Central train. After mocking up the rear fender, Mr. Davis, president and CEO of Simmons, decided this bike would be ridden also, which meant we needed a license plate. So I tell Brian, now we need a plate, but damn if it’s going to cover the artwork! I knew my brother Michael would not allow a plate in the middle of the art. As easy as it was for Brian to make the rear light he came up with an awesome removable plate mount that fastens to the seat, on for Sunday rides and off for international displays.
I called my good friends Evan and Jody at ESI Cycle Products for more lights on this project. Evan came up to the shop and suggested replacing our center light with an LED board and also put LED strips between the bags and fender for brakes and directional, “Never enough rear lights.” Now it was onto bracing the lower part of the rear fender as we extended it where the cowcatcher will be. Now being Mr. Davis wants to ride this billboard, we are running out of time; Deadline:Laconia. Now its spring here and in the northeast the riding season is short. Michael says to me, “Dave, I can’t possibly finish this by Laconia (which is now a month away) and still have the quality and standards that we require.” Michael calls his friend Matt, a commercial graphic designer based in New York City, and tells him we need his help. Michael is off to New York with the rendering, printouts, and bag dimensions from the company brochure. Matt had the drawings to scale in one week and Michael was ready to airbrush.
Now we are into July, slowly moving forward. The tank and rear fender are done but the bags are so detailed that the weeks are going by like days. I said, “Mike, this has to be done by Sturgis.” His reply is “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.” Now with the bike all together except the bags we have another vision, the front end needs to be black, too much chrome there now. Fred, our new Wyotech graduate, is thinking “Overtime!” The front end is completely removed and goes to Ray and Chris at PowderTech and two days later we had a black powdercoated front end. Needless to say, its time for Sturgis and we have my brother Michael staying behind at the shop to finish the artwork with Don our clear coat and buff man. Finally, on the last day of Sturgis, Brian calls and says we have all the parts and we’re doing final assembly on the bags. At ten o’clock Mountain Time the next day, I get a call, which is Midnight, Eastern Time. Michael says to Brian, “We can’t have the pipes that close to my artwork.” The problem being when we extended the lower section of the rear fender and bags we didn’t realize the end caps on the Python exhaust wouldn’t clear the fender. Back to the drawing board for Brian and three days later we had 4” extensions for the end caps. We had so many hurdles and were able to overcome them all. The people that helped us and saw this project know what we accomplished, it was amazing. My philosophy is, I don’t know everything, but I know everybody! Between my father, my brother, our friends, and myself we were able to successfully complete this project. We hope it plays and integral part of Simmons’ 100-year celebration. What an exciting and rewarding project.
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