The time has come to get rid of the kids’ bike, trikes and wagon. They didn’t want them, and I needed the space. But it’s hard to let them go as they were the very best-built of their kind, virtually indestructible. That’s not exactly a common quality in kids sidewalk toys and bikes, although I’m sure there are probably some exceptions, at the right price.
This 20″ mountain bike may look pretty average at first glance, but this one, from about 1988 or so and built in Taiwan, is built to the same standards as a high quality mountain bike back then. And after two boys, it’s still in almost perfect condition.
I should say three boys, as I used to ride it around our one acre spread regularly, including with one or the other boys on my shoulders.
Did we ever try it with all three on board? I wouldn’t be surprised.
A long dead brand, I assume.
I got a mountain bike after we moved to Oregon, and my younger son and I did some nice rides way up in the Cascades.
But the bike is fragile compared to this trike I picked up at a yard sale. It must have been made for a commercial preschool or something; it’s built out of the thickest steel imaginable; practically solid through and through. Even the seat is thick steel. Heavy, but utterly indestructible.
The German Brio stand-up trike-scooter is very solidly built too, but feels almost flimsy compared to the tricycle, if that’s possible.
And the classic wooden wagon too, also still in quite good condition given the abuse it got. It was often hitched to the back of the trike to haul younger kids or toys or whatever.
I put them all on Craigslist, for cheap, and the bike quickly found a good home; a mom looking for a rugged bike for her kid. $20 nominal price. The wagon went too. But the trikes are still here. Too plain and old-fashioned? Too rugged? No electric motor?
I have been looking, casually at the moment, for a wagon as a means of hauling yard debris and ” whatever ” and have been quite surprised by the prices.
I had a wagon as a small child, though as I remember no stake sides or even the capability to add them, and after a few years use the front axle was broken. The one in the pictures looks like it was well built and well taken care of so I hope you got a fairly decent price for it.
Advertise the tricycle and scooter as antiques, with commensurate prices, they may go faster that way.
Yeah, those old ‘little red wagons’ are quite salty with the prices lined up with demand, so much so you’d think someone would be cashing-in with more cost-effective reproductions.
Like Howard said above, the tricycle & scooter may be of interest to someone into antiques.
Do you have an antiques dealer in Eugene that might buy them off of you?
Trike is likely one intended for “institutional use”. All of the preschools in my district have a similar one to practice gross motor skills, though the Physical Therapists use them as well depending on the students needs and age.
Funny thing happened with bikes last year. New bike supply dried up and everything on Craig’s sold rather quickly here in the Northeast. Your 20” is a transition bike that should find a good home. Donations are best. I I have brought many to Second Life Bicycles in Asbury NJ. . Kerry takes them in and works with individual children and groups to clean and tune them for their use. She also sells donated bikes and lets you fix your bike in exchange for volunteer time. A great setup that sounds very Eugene-like. Perhaps this could be your next adventure Paul.
I’m impressed that you’ve kept them this long!
I notice that the side of the trike says Mongoose; I wonder if that’s an ancestor of the same company as the more modern Mongoose bike brand?
I love getting rid of stuff that we don’t need, and seeing it go to someone that’ll use it!
That tricycle reminds me of our son’s first. My brother in law was working for John Deere, and got him a JD mighty trike! That thing must have weighed double what young Derek did, and it was a bit of a menace because it had so much inertia once he got going it was virtually unstoppable!
They certainly outlasted that gen 2 Caravan.
Why is a young Bobby Vinton playing with your kids?
Interesting story. Older bikes, especially the steel frame variety last forever, I’m glad to see them passed on to people who can appreciate them.
Back in the 90’s I bought a mountain bike at Wal Mart for $80 or so. I haven’t used it a ton, but it has operated flawlessly, especially the shifters. Now, the purple and magenta color scheme on the other hand…
I reckon the trike isn’t a Mongoose, as I can’t find any reference to them making trikes like that. It also looks like it was once blue, and that sticker is on the yellow paint. Junior’ll never know.
I have a notion that maybe the Hulk-Holder trike was made by a small engineering outfit more used to heavier duty stuff, like a wheelbarrow or mobile generator chassis-maker, after some other contract has fallen through. Lots of HD wheels and tubing (and welders) to be used. That sort of thing certainly happened here years ago: infamously, Oz even had a car made by washing-machine maker from ’63-’65 (the Lightburn Zeta, certainly amongst the very worst cars ever made)!
In a couple of years you will have the grandchildren and wish you still had the bikes and trikes.
As a hobby, I used to built motorized bikes with Chinese two-stroke motors. I can attest that the frames of the earliest mountain bikes are the only way to go. They are heavier that what you will get nowadays, but they are the only thing to hold up to miles and miles of poorly-tuned 66cc motoring.
I have shaken apart 3 bike frames, having them split of crack at the most inopportune times. Old metal holds up better!