1893 Premier Model J Youth’s Safety

1893 Premier Model J Youth’s Safety

with tricycle style bottom bracket chain adjustment

18″ Frame

26″ Wheels with solid tyres

Arab Spring saddle

I bought this bicycle from the Farren Collection when I was in Melbourne, Australia, in November, 2025. Paul Farren had shown me pictures of it ten years previously and asked me if I recognized its maker, but I did not.

For a cycle company, the costs of building a smaller size bicycle were not much less than for an adult cycle, with the disadvantages that less were sold and because they were smaller, their sale prices needed to be lower. Every bicycle built required patent license duties to be paid for any feature not owned by the company. So money was saved by using some outdated features on juvenile machines to keep the costs lower. Early tricycles had sliders for chain adjustment because having two wheels behind alleviated the strain on the slider, whereas it would not have been possible to keep it tightened on an adult bicycle. Similarly, a. youth size cycle would most likely not have been ridden so hard as to affect the slider adversely.

After my purchase, the first thing I did was to examine pictures of early tricycles with sliding chain adjustment. The bicycle’s front brake also looked familiar…Bingo! Both parts were common to an 1887 Hillman Herbert & Cooper tandem tricycle I sold 5 or 6 years ago. My friend Roger Armstrong is the marque enthusiast for HHC and he confirmed that it’s an 1893 Premier Model J.

When Paul Farren had owned it, the chainwheel was fitted on the right side. So the first thing I did after it arrived in Brighton (UK) was to switch it to its correct side. It now looks the same as in the catalogue illustration below.

SLIDING CHAIN ADJUSTMENT AT BOTTOM BRACKET

A ‘slider’ was unsuitable for adult bicycles, but could be used on a tricycle and a junior bicycle. Compare the slider on the 1887 Hillman Herbert & Cooper tandem tricycle (below).