Barn Finds writer, Brian, showed us a super cool, vintage Huffy Radiobike yesterday and I just ran across this one with an extra wheel! This is a 1975 AMF Evel Knievel Trike and it could be another one for you barn finds bike collectors and restorers. This tough trike is listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $999.99 (yep, they’re a pro-seller), or you can make an offer. You’ll have to pick it up in Cochecton, New York, you’d have a tough time explaining to your shipper that you want them to pick up a 48-inch long pedal trike and you don’t want to pay the usual $800 that they charge for motorcycles.
I thought that I had a cool bike as a kid when my brother and I each received a Sears Screamer around 1970, like this one. This AMF Evel Knievel trike would have been mind-blowing for a kid to receive as a gift. Of course, we lived on a gravel road so maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as easy to move along the rocks as a two-wheeler was.
AMF (American Machine and Foundry) had their paws in darn near everything in the 1970s, from Harley-Davidson to bowling equipment. And, Evel Knievel was red-hot as well at the same time. AMF offered an entire line of Evel Knievel bikes from full-sized multi-speed models down to small two-wheelers and also three different trikes. Here’s a YouTube video showing an AMF bike commercial with the man, the myth, and the legend himself: Evel Knievel!
This trike will need a full restoration – the graphics will need to be reproduced, the seat has a stain on it but the material itself looks nice and undamaged, somehow, after over four decades, and the chrome will need to be re-plated, etc. Here’s an old ad from 1976 showing this model of trike being sold for $29.88! Ouch, if we would have only known to keep our stuff! Did any of you have a cool bike or trike like these when you were a kid? Or, do you now?
I had one when I was a child. Once I became a teenager, me and 2 of my friends decided it would be beneficial to burn it. A little gasoline an a match. This gave off much more black smoke than the usual army men burning that a neighbor in our subdivision called the police. Yep, I got in trouble. That’s what happens when mom and dad both work outside the home.
Been there! While I didn’t burn up anything as cool as this trike, my friends and I did incinerate any of a number of 1/24 scale plastic models, many of them also were subjected to simulated explosions using Black Cats. More than once the local constabulary were consulted and I ended up taking the rap for all of us.
It was the late 1970’s, and mom & dad weren’t married anymore. Mom was now working outside the home, and I suspect my sort of trouble was all too common to local law enforcement.
Reminds me of my Big Wheel. Of course it flat spot on front wheel, which gave a less than favorable ride. However, I know how far I can jump one with 2 cement block and a a piece of plywood. Evel Knievel had nothing on me.
I know just how far they won’t jump. I’ve got a nice scar on my head to prove it.
I miss my Big Wheel, I rode it so much I wore the plastic wheel down to the point that there wasn’t anything left. I rode it on our dirt road for a couple years and then we got pavement and my entire world changed, I quickly became the champion of sliding my Big Wheel sideways (well at least I felt like the champion). I never did try jumping it, that came later with BMX bikes, but I’m surprised we never tried it. Chances are one of us would have ended up with more than just a scar, so it’s probably best that we didn’t!
Now if we had had a trike like this, I guarentee that we would have been building jumps in an attempt to be like Evel Kneivel. Heck if I could fit on it, I probably will still try to jump it!
Big Wheel or no Wheel!
Interesting. Looks like the front end and tank of a banana bike mated with the back end and seat of a big wheels and fitted with the propulsion system of a pedal car. However, no matter how good (or bad) it looks, it ain’t worth no $1,000 – correction…$999.99
I had a light blue Barris designed Drag Stripper as my first bike. My mother bought it for me from a garage sale for $12. It was heavy and awkward to ride with the long handlebars and banana seat with the shifter fastened to the middle bar. At the time (early 80s), I hated it and kept crashing it on purpose. All of my friends had BMX bikes and I wanted one too.
Something like this is great fun to look at and remember when, but I wouldn’t buy it, especially for almost a grand. Must be made with Porsche metal.
It’s cool but not a grand cool. I’d take a classic Big Wheel any day, until the front wheel splits. And why would I have to pick it up? My “usual shipper” in this case would be UPS. This thing weighs maybe 50 pounds. Maybe.
Here’s a seller who wants $1000 for something that MIGHT be worth $250 and he won’t even take off the fork (very easy), get a large box and ship a 50 pound (MAX) item. He wants people to drive somewhere in New York state to pick it up. Unbelievable.
The price may be crazy, and I don’t really want to own this thing. But it does bring back vivid memories for me. I would have been nine when this thing was sold. Evel was definitely hot at that time. I had a totally cool pressed metal Evel lunch box around that time – as did several of my friends. I remember Evel “motorcycle” styled Huffys in my neighborhood. I had a small Evel action figure/motorcycle that you wound up on some kind of stand and then let loose. I used mine to emulate the Snake River Canyon jump on a stream way back in the woods behind my house, with pretty much the same results as the man himself.
The comments about jumping bikes also bring back memories. My house had a hill alongside, and we had plenty of scrap wood and cinder blocks available. Helmet? What’s a helmet?
I guess that’s why I’m still a mountain biker and my favorite part is jumping off logs and rocks and stuff. Plenty of scars too…
– John
Women dig scars!
I’ve actually got one of these in my garage! I don’t remember where I got it as it came out considerably below my time, but I have it.
(That’s my dad in the photo)
It came out the same year that I graduated from high school in 1975. If you can calculate my age now as you know they are hard to find and not many exist today. A daredevil man who is now gone and a great piece of history with his name. I found one unassembled in a box.