Tricycle Fetish Blog

Q: I found a picture of me from 1967 ( I was 1! ) on some sort of AMF riding toy. It has a seat like a tricycle, but there are four wheels instead of three — two on each side — and no pedals. I’d like to know just what this thing is called. I’ve been racking my brain with every combination of terms (scooter, quad, kiddycar, etc.) to use on Google, but nothing matches what this toy looks like.

A: Hmmm, that’s a good question. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen one in a catalog or print ad to verify the actual name of the thing. It would probably be technically classified as a ride-on, rather than a tricycle or scooter. It was made by AMF and branded under their Junior Toy line. I’ve seen it called a Wee Wheeler, a Sit and Scoot, and a Wee Rider.  We’ve got one of these in stock, but it is far from being in mint condition. These were made for a number of years, and like AMF/Junior tricycles, they have different headbadges and those badges can be used to help determine the age.

Q: Hello, I have an antique tricycle and I am trying to identify the maker, year, and possible value of it. Can you help? I have attached a photo. Thank you for your consideration. Shannon

A: I’m sorry Shannon, but your tricycle is far from being an antique. We don’t want to make an example of you, but your question is very similar to ones we get constantly, and hopefully our answer will help others trying to date their tricycles.

The basic rule of thumb to go by is that if a tricycle has two steps, it was made after 1960.

We’re unsure of the first appearance of the single rear step plate, but it’s safe to say that if you have a tricycle with a single rear step, the tricycle was probably made after the 1920′s.  Prior to this there would have only been an axle or steel tube across the back. Some of the earliest steps that may have been around as far back as the 1920′s were the foot pad type, that used small cast iron step pads, rather than a step that stretched across the back.

As far as your tricycle goes, it’s probably a mid-1960′s AMF that probably originally had a paint with a metallic finish and some space age decals on the fender.

Q: I’ve just bought this trike and wondered if you could tell me anything about it. Badge on the front says Siebert.

A: Your tricycle appears to be a mid-late 1930′s Siebert. It was an American maker that during the 1940′s developed a line of strollers that had wheels that could turn from side to side….though the company appears to have been making tricycles since the late 1800′s. Your tricycle is pretty scarce. Having every Siebert catalog or an ad with that exact tricycle on it would probably be the only way to date it more precisely.  This type of streamlined modern tricycle is highly collectible. Here is a a bit of info and a few more Siebert pictures.

The following article details an email conversation between a site visitor and us here at Tricyclefetish.com. The same photos were later used to scam a buyer on eBay, using the exact opposite of our assessment of the tricycle to lure bidders into bidding on their non-antique tricycle. If you’re interested in the seller’s eBay ID, here it is: becca1963. The eBay ID is a shortened name of the emailer in question, and the photos sent to us were the exact same photos used in the auction.

R. Vogt: Need help with age and type of antique tricycle purchased at an Estate Auction in Los Altos CA. Thanks so much.

TricycleFetish: Reply to this email with pictures and we’ll see what we can tell you. Thanks

R. Vogt: Thanks so very much.  They told us between 1880′s to early 1900′s?  Again any help would be great. (ed. note: One of the pictures included are pictured below)

TricycleFetish: Who told you the age? How much did you pay for it? Thanks (ed. note: We often ask this type of question before breaking bad news to recent buyers of tricycle that are fake. If the price paid was high, we try to break it to them differently that if they’d paid $10 for it at a yard sale).

R. Vogt: Auctioneer and paid $60

TricycleFetish: OK, that’s not bad. I was hoping you didn’t pay much because it’s not old, and most certainly not 1880′s to 1900. It’s a reproduction that looks like someone left sit out in the rain or in a barn to get rusty for real (when they are new they are treated with chemicals to give them a patina, but yours looks to have developed real rust). The auctioneer should know better, or at least know enough not to tell people things that they obviously know is wrong or know they really don’t know anything about. We don’t give out values except to our price guide customers, but you didn’t do too bad. Probably will never sell if for more than that though, unless you find someone who also thinks that it’s old and you lie to them.
We have lots of articles on our blog that have very similar tricycles: http://www.tricyclefetish.com/blog/
Also you can compare the fakes on our repo’s page (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for two almost identical to yours): http://www.tricyclefetish.com/fakes.php
….to the real tricycles of that era on our page of period photos: http://www.tricyclefetish.com/tricycle_photos.php
Hope that helps, www.tricyclefetish.com

So R. Vogt must not have like our assessment of her tricycle, because we never received any type of thank you email or any type of reply to this last message at all. Now imagine our surprise when looking at tricycle on eBay and see a picture of her tricycle with this title: Rare Antique Tricycle for late 1800′s, and this description: This was purchased at an Estate Auction in Los Altos CA.  Owned by a actor named “Robert Ferro”.  The Tricycle is in good shape for how old it is.  These old Tricycles are hard to come by and most are reproductions.  Thanks for looking.
The tricycle sold for $300 with an additional $60 shipping. $240 is not a bad profit on a fake antique tricycle that the seller overpaid for in the first place. Perhaps I should have added a “THIS IS SARCASM!” after the part in our reply about selling it for a profit by lying.

If you ever wonder why we charge $5 for priceguide access and appraisal service, refer to the story above.  It’s frustrating to take the time to answer questions, just to have your response ignored. And even more frustrating to see people getting scammed on eBay paying $300 for a reproduction tricycle that is about identical to other repos that normally sell (or don’t get any bids) in the $25-50 range.

Morals of this story, 1) eBay is full of scams, 2) eBay is full of sellers who don’t know a lot about their inventory, 3) Try to find out about values and authenticity of antiques PRIOR to purchasing them.

Q: Back in the early1950′s to 1957 I got a tricycle for Christmas .It was a black and white police tricycle with windshield bell and I think a siren The windshield was lettered with POLICE at the bottom section. I can’t recall who made the tricycle it was one of the larger tricycles back then If you could help me find a picture and or the maker of this tricycle I want one in almost any condition to restore for my grandson tanks for any help you might give me.

A: Garton produced one that seems to fit that description in the early 1950′s. Visit our Garton manufacturer’s page for some more info and pictures. The problem that you’re likely to encounter is finding one that is intact with all of the accessories. They were basically a standard Garton tricycle with a siren and windshield and then some stars applied on a police blue paint scheme.

They have showed up on eBay occasionally intact and complete and windshields for them also show up occasionally. You can also always get a similar Garton tricycle and add a siren and windshield as well as the proper paint colors when restoring it. Would not be completely accurate, but it would look good and be fine for a child to ride.

Q: Can you tell me what brand/model my “police Tricycle” is? I was born in 1954 and I suppose I was 3-4 years old in this picture. I am the one in the front on the seat. Note the wood blocks for the proper pedal reach.

A: Your tricycle was made by Evans (some Evans tricycle info). Those tricycles were probably made for a few years during the mid-late 1950′s and possibly into the early 1960′s. We don’t seem to have any images of ads or catalogs with that type of tricycle. They are pretty scarce, but you can occasionally can find one on eBay from time to time…usually in pretty crappy condition.

We recently received the following email along with before and after photos of a restoration project done on a vintage Angeles Carry-All trike with built in wagon.  I restored an Angeles SilverRider Carry-All tricycle and thought you might like to post the photos. I took the liberty of making an oak plank bed so I guess it could be considered a “resto-mod”. Angeles liked the before and after photos and the marketing department asked my permission to post the photos on their blog…..We’re always happy to receive before and after photos of tricycle restorations. If you’ve done one that you’d like to have us post on our blog, please email us for instructions on sending us photos and any pertinent info about the restoration.

Q: hello…here is a picture..the trike is original as far as we can tell..the seat is adjustable..the tires are solid rubber redlined..the tassels look to be original..the seat is padded  with chrome trim..the paint is almost metal flake looking..gold,green,,with a little silver in it..we have gone over the bike totally and the only id on it is the front sticker that says fleetwing on it…there are no serial numbers or marks that we can find…any help will be greatly appreciated..ty..

A:  Your Fleetwing tricycle was most likely retailed through the Jordan Marsh department store chain, based in Boston. It was manufactured by Murray,  in the 1970′s.  Murray made many tricycles for department stores and other chain stores. Murray would label the tricycles with a “house” brand name and sometimes special paint schemes and the chain store would market and sell them in their stores and catalogs under this brand.

This branding practice also was done with bicycles. And it is a common practice. Also routinely done with consumer electronics as well.

A bomb planted in a child’s tricycle exploded outside a shop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and damaging several stores and hotels, police said.

The attack occurred in the main bazaar in the town of Risalpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Mohammad Hussain, police chief for surrounding Nowshera district. 23+ people were wounded, Hussain said.  No group claimed responsibility for the attack…[full story]

This tricycle that appears to be from the early 1950′s was recently restored by TricycleFetish.com reader, Keith C. for his wife who had a similar tricycle when she was a child. The restoration looks great and you can see just how much work went into it and the improvement made when you consider the “before restoration” photo below.

This is an image of a circa mid-1930′s Mercury tricycle step made by Murray.

Q: I found my younger sister’s tricycle while cleaning out my parent’s garage. My sister was born in 1966, so I am assuming the bike is from the 60′s. However, what confuses me is that while the seat says Troxel, there is no name of the bike manufacturer, only a decal that reads “ball bearing” on one of the two steps. I thought it was a Murray tricycle, but what do I know?!

A: It’s amazing how many emails we get with questions about Troxel tricycles. And you can usually find someone on eBay selling “Vintage Troxel Tricycle.” Troxel, as you clearly understand, is not a tricycle manufacturer. Troxel makes seats/saddles and helmets.

Your tricycle is most likely a mid-late 1960′s tricycle made by Murray. It was probably one of the tricycles they made for a department store chain like Western Auto (in which case it would have been advertised as a Western Flyer). Your tricycle looks to be in pretty nice condition for its age.

We received the photo above of an early Taylor chain driven tricycle that has relatively small gauge tubing when compared to the later Taylor tricycles. The tricycle was probably made in the late 1920′s or early 1930′s.  The owner wants to know our thoughts on whether or not he should restore it. It’s really hard to tell from the photos whether it is rusty or just really dirty. If most of the original paint remains, you might want to leave it as is. If it’s mostly rusty, then it might be a nice project.

The problem that you’re probably going to run into with a tricycle like this is the pneumatic tires. They’re about impossible to find and extremely expensive if you can find them. If the tires are not in bad condition (doubtful, though from the pictures it’s hard to tell) you might be able to have a tire place fill them with the foam that they use in equipment tires. This would keep them looking original…but again, only if they are in pretty good shape right now.

Q: Not sure what brand or year it is. It has the two step and bakelite looking round hand enclosures with sparkly handle bar grippers. It has possible space age grid half-way down the front tire. It is mint green and a seemingly green green for main paint areas. Love your site. Kerin

A: Your question is an example of exactly why we need a photograph to identify tricycles. Your tricycle is not considered a two step model. The two step models have two flat steps. Nothing on the tricycle is Bakelite, widespread us of it stopped years before this tricycle was made. The fender really isn’t considered Space Age (except perhaps by a few over reaching eBay sellers looking for keywords); it’s just a fender with partial skirt that has a pierced design. If anything on the tricycle is Space Age, it would be the hand guards.

OK, so what is it? It’s a circa 1950′s tricycle made by Midwest Industries or perhaps their parent company MTD – both made very similar tricycles, some of them using the same exact design. Originally there would have been a headbadge sticker that would have had the brand logo on it.

Though not the most valuable tricycles by any means, Midwest trikes seem to be quite popular and people really like the pierced fender skirt design.

Q: My cousin just gave me back my childhood low rider tricycle. I plan to fix it up for my daughter. I was wondering if you could help me identify it. It’s the exact same trike from the movie “The Shining”. Here is a youtube clip of the trike in the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t60oY0TbTU  -Mickey

A: It sure looks like an AMF “big wheel” type tricycle that I had when I was young too. We’ve been asked this question before and after a non-exhaustive search, we could find nowhere that told of make/model for sure, but we’re pretty sure that it was made by AMF.

Anyone know for sure? Leave us a comment.

Q: Looking to see if you can identify this unique tricycle/bicycle. Looks original, was told it is original. Sticker/plate on head tube is missing, no markings whatsoever. Your help to I’D make/year/value is appreciated in advance.

A: This is really a bicycle, but it was made by a company that did also make tricycle and didn’t really specialize in bicycles. It was made by Garton, probably circa 1950′s. I’m unsure of the exact age or if it had a model name. I’m sure bicycle collectors would be more up on this than us. Also you might try a site specializing in Garton pedal cars for more specific info.

Originally the basket would have been pretty much on top of the rear wheel and the front wheel had a fender than matched the “tank” and had graphics with spurs on them.

Awhile back a Tricyclefetish.com visitor inquired about NOS headbadge decals for a 1950′s era Evans Colson tricycle. We get a lot of questions like this…the head tube decal on the tricycle is worn badly or missing and the owner wants a new one. They are about impossible to find. You can find some here and there at swap meets, but other than that, they just aren’t out there.

So our usual solution to the problem is to get photoshopping and use what images you can find to make a suitable replica. Most people who face this problem of missing headbadge decals want to know about whether this will affect the value in a positive or negative manner. We think that, if done nicely, whether identical to the original or not, a nicely done photoshopped headbadge deal will increase the value or at the very least, not detract from it in any way.

Vintage tricycles are a niche field to say the least. As long as a replica/fake/photoshopped head tube decal is done in a way that is nice and clean and professional looking, it can only add to the appeal of a tricycle. You can spend five or ten years looking for something that you’ll never find, or you can redo it on a computer and have it made up by a sticker company for a nominal fee. Our thoughts are that it is better to be nice, but not necessarily original, than to have a void on the head tube where the original sticker might someday be…..if you can find it, but most times, you never will.

Anyway, the owner of the pictured tricycle sent us photos of a nearly done restoration that still needs the handlebars added, and it looks great.

Update: Today we received photos of the finished project. Very nice job indeed.

Q: Here is the tricycle that I am inquiring about. I would love to know anything you could tell me about it, like how old it is and things like that. It was my grandfather’s and he was born in 1908, and i tried searching for tricycles during that time but I did not find anything similar. Since he is no longer alive I can not ask him any info about it, so I was hoping you could help me. The right back wheel is broken also and I would love to replace it or have it fixed if you could tell me where I might be able to find a wheel or a repair person I would greatly appreciate it.

A: The tricycle was probably not ridden by your grandfather, unless we was a leprechaun. Your tricycle is a Sky Tot and was made by the Junior Toy Company in the late 1930′s. Though it isn’t as old as you had thought, it is probably much more desirable than most all tricycles from 1910.

As far as the back wheel goes…it depends on what is wrong with it. Replacements are hard to find, but not impossible. If you post photos of the broken wheel to the Tricyclefetish Facebook page, we’ll try to help further.

Q: I believe this is the authentic model of the horse/stallion/tricycle.  Every indication is that there is some age involved.  Since you cannot give me an idea of value, can you tell me if there is a market for this item and what the best way to sell it would be?

A: After looking at your photo for about 2 seconds, I am 100% sure that your tricycle is a reproduction. You need to see our page on Fake Horse Tricycles and compare the info and photos on there to the ones on our Authentic Horse Tricycles page….after doing so, it should be obvious why yours is not antique.

…but in case you still can’t see, I will provide a quick list of things that obviously make yours not an antique.

1. Wear – the wear on your tricycle is obviously stages. Why would there be chunks missing from the paint all over the thing, but not where it would be repeatedly worn from normal use?

2. Pedal – no antique tricycle used cheap plain pedals like that made of basically flat steel bars bent into a rectangle.

3. Tail – lots of “wear” but still retains a very very long tail, no, that should have fallen out or been pulled out long ago.

4. Wood rims – though there were tricycles with wood outer tread, they are so rare to find surviving today that you might as well assume that they never existed. In contrast, wood outer tread on reproductions is so common that if you have a horse tricycle without wood rims, you have a good shot of having a real antique, just based on that.

5. Forks – no, wrong type of forks, I’ll leave it at that.

6. The fact that you own one – probably the easiest way to tell that your tricycle is a fake (without even looking at it) is that you own one. I would guess that about one out of every questions we get like yours results in us telling the owner that they have an actual antique tricycle…..and most of those are later models from the 1930′s. Almost nobody ever emails with pictures of real antiques. They are rare, and valuable.

So on to your question of ways to market this tricycle. It’s a simple sell, however, you must have absolutely no ethics or morals. If you’re devoid of any conscience at all, you simply put the horse on eBay, in an auction, or at an antique store as if it were really 110 years old. Price it high, but not too high. Then you just wait for a decorator to come along and think that they are buying an antique piece and pay for it, thinking that they are getting a really good deal.

If, however, you have some scruples, you will need to price it lower at any of those same outlets and sell it for what it is…a reproduction tricycle that was artificially aged (badly) and hope someone thinks it would look good in their home.

Don’t feel bad for (I’m guessing) buying it thinking it was real. We get tons of emails just like yours. It shows that the job done in producing and aging the tricycle is sufficient to fool lots of people. Counterfeiters don’t have to fool the experts, just the people who are going to buy their goods, whether it be fake money, sunglasses, Rolex watches, paintings, etc.

Q: What is the brand of the tricycle in the Cadillac Shield TV commercial?

A: The tricycle in that advertisement looks to be a made up creation using a combination of new and vintage parts….that’s our guess anyway. If you do a Google search for Cadillac Shield Ad, you can find links to the Facebook page and YouTube channel of the actors in the commercial, possibly you could ask them if they know.

Our best guess is that they used a combination of Schwinn Roadster and Radio Flyer Tailspin, added vintage handlebars, mag wheels and some kind of odd pedals, and painted the whole thing yellow with flames. We could be way off though. It definitely isn’t stock, and if it is, we haven’t seen one.