1900 Juvenile Tricycle (Thos Hughes & Co, Birmingham)

Who buys tricycles for young children? The answer is not children ,,,but parents or grandparents.

Cycle makers realised this fact very early on. The very first velocipedes were expensive to make, and their novelty value kept resale prices high, but by the mid-1890s there was increased competition.

There was less profit in making children’s bicycle and tricycles but they could keep costs down by ignoring the innovations being used in the latest adult bicycles and instead make them using outdated design features, such as very basic steering heads. While you may think that the parents and grandparents would prefer the latest gimmicks for their children’s toys, the reverse was true: they were nostalgic for the styles of their own younger years. And collectors today like them for the same reason.

The early style of velocipede tricycle was actually made right up to WW2, and newer versions into the fifties. I know this tricycle was made by Thomas Hughes because its design is identical to a slightly larger one I sold some years ago that had the maker’s name etched into the steering head.

You can see it in the above photo next to a girls’ tricycle. Girls were encouraged to use those ’tiller and treadle’ tricycles, while boys. who were encouraged at sports, rode this style of velocipede tricycle.