Long John F.A.Q.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I get a Long John?
Where can I get Long John spare parts?
What kind of tyres do I need for my SCO/Monark Long John?
How old is my Long John? Who built it?
What´s the relation between S.C.O., Smith & Co, Everton Smith and Monark?
What is a "Little John"?

Where can I get a Long John?

The manufacturer of the "original" Long John, Everton Smith in Denmark (owner of the brand S.C.O.), perished in 1997. Long John production shifted to Monark Exercise in Sweden, who stopped building these bikes in 2003, then restarted in 2007. The current Monark model is quite similar to Long Johns built by Everton Smith in the mid-nineties.

In Germany, Monark Long Johns are currently being sold by USED, Quakenbrück. See their website for more information:
used-hq.de (German)
used-hq.com (English)

Velorbis in Copenhagen imports Monark Long Johns to Denmark and other countries under their own label:
velorbis.dk (Danish)
velorbis.co.uk (English)
velorbis.com (English)

Monark Exercise website (not always up-to-date):
monarkexercise.se (multilingual)

Looking for an older Long John? Occasionally there are Long Johns on Danish, Dutch and German online auctions:
dba.dk
qxl.dk
marktplaats.nl
ebay.de

If you are not focussed on the original SCO/Monark Long John you might also want to have a look on these bikes:
Long John by Esimex, Denmark
Bullitt by Larry vs Harry, Denmark
Long Harry by Pedalpower, Germany
Cargobike by Bakfiets, Netherlands
Long Haul by CAT Oregon, USA

Where can I get Long John spare parts?

If you need spare parts for a SCO or Monark Long John try to find a Monark distributor for your country. If you´re lucky they still have some spare parts on stock.

Germany: used-hq.de
Switzerland: vitelli.ch

Monark still produces a workbike called Truck or Baker´s Bike. Some of the parts (rims, mudguards, etc) will fit for SCO/Monark Long Johns.

What kind of tyres do I need for my SCO/Monark Long John?

SCO and Monark Long Johns built since 1972 will most likely have a 20" front wheel (ERTRO diameter: 406 mm) and a 23" rear wheel (ERTRO diameter: 484 mm). If your bike dealer is not able to deliver the right tyres visit a dealer specialized in motorcycles and scooters. Both 23" and 20" are sizes used on older mopeds, and the tyres used by SCO and Monark are actually moped tyres.

Here´s a list of available moped tyres for the sizes 2-16 (20x2) and 2-19 (23x2):

Tyre	Size 2-16 (20x2)	Size 2-19 (23x2)	Comment	Link
Hutchinson Vroom	X	X	original SCO/Monark equipment, dynamo/generator tread on both sides	Vroom at hutchinson-pneus.com
Continental KKS10	X	X	sturdy, no dynamo/generator tread	KKS10 at conti-online.de
Vredestein Sprint	X	X		Sprint at vredestein.com
Michelin VM 100	X	-		VM 100 at michelin.de
Michelin Rapido	-	X		Rapido at michelin.com

Older Long Johns usually do have 24" or 26" rear wheels. Unfortunately these are no precise size labels. Both are just loose descriptions of tyre categories covering about a dozen of different rim diameters. Currently, I do not yet have any reliable information on the diameters used on vintage Long Johns. If you´ve got an old Long John with an original rear rim featuring a size other than 23" (484 mm) please contact me.

To understand the bizarre oddities of tyre sizing please visit these excellent pages:
Tyre sizing by Sheldon Brown
The Moped Archive´s guide to tyre tizing

How old is my Long John? Who built it?

See this page for help.

What´s the relation between S.C.O., Smith & Co, Everton Smith and Monark?

Smith & Co was a bicycle company in Odense, Denmark. Among others, they owned the brand S.C.O. under which they sold the Long John and other bikes. In 1995 Smith & Co bought Everton, a Danish brand founded in 1950. The company changed its name to Everton Smith.

In 1997 the brand Everton was sold to Kildemoes, another Danish bicycle company. The rest of former Smith & Co was bought by Monark in Sweden who continued producing Long Johns and other former SCO cargo bikes. Today, Monark like Kildemoes and many other formerly independent Scandinavian bicycle companies belongs to the Cycleurope group.

What is a "Little John"?

The Little John (or "Lille John" in Danish) was a shorter Version of the Long John. As far as I know it was built by SCO from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. With its step-through frame it is often considered to be the women´s version of the Long John. Information about Little Johns is hard to find and I´m not sure about the intention of this model. Maybe SCO aimed for use at postal delivery services where the Long John was too long, too heavy and too uncomfortable. However, the Little John never became as popular as the Long John.

SCO "Little John".

Little Johns are frequently confused with the baker´s bike built by SCO. The baker´s bike (also called "Truck" or "Short John") is still in production at Monark in Sweden.


SCO "Truck" aka "Baker´s bike" aka "Short John"

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