Vital info needed on new toy

[Bryan]

Good score. And thanks for posting the question. I just spent some pleasant time reading about Carl Hedstrom and his developement of the Indian motorcycle in 1901. Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything about your Whisperide. Tomorrow, I'll ask Angel to look. If it's on the net, she will probably find it.

Thanks for checking, I appreciate it. I spent about 6 hours looking at everything I could think of, but found nothing but recalls on Hedstrom toys and swings, and the bankruptcy, SEC investigation and auctioning off of all the company assets and equipment at their 3 factory locations and headquarters.
Loads of people posted about the poor quality of their toys and regular bikes, and it seems a shame that they ran the Hedstrom name into the ground with shoddy work and poor quality. I've searched all the auction sites, Craigslist, and have emails out to various antique toy, bike and pedal car dealers to see if they know anything.
I do have a note written by the owner years ago, of someone he spoke to about the bike and it's price. There was a $1700.00 wholesale figure written down on the paper, and a $1000.00 sale price next to a mention of the word 'ad', so I'm guessing the original owner tried to sell it at one point by advertising it in a newspaper.
I only have the cost of 2 batteries, $150.00, and 3 tires and tubes, $45.00 in it, so if I can get it running and clean it up, maybe one of the blue hairs here in retirement land will take it off my hands for what I have in it. Unless I find out its true value. I may even contact some bike and motorcycle museums to see if there's any info there.
Thanks,
Bryan

 

[Alaskavan]

Is it possible that Hedstrom just made the body parts for some other Mfg.? There's a lot on line about their molding.

 

[Bryan]

Is it possible that Hedstrom just made the body parts for some other Mfg.? There's a lot on line about their molding.

Hedstrom did their own injection molding for toys and playground stuff they made. Alot of their swing sets had plastic brackets on them that were used to connect the rail sections at the top. These parts often broke. The company was fined numerous times for dangerous equipment, and suffered through many ordered recalls because of their crappy products.

They also made their own bicycles; the most recent ones being tricycles and 16" gilrs bikes. The forks had a habit of breaking, a combination of cheap metal and lousy welding. They produced quite a few of the pedal trikes with the baskets that were popular with the retirement folks.
I've searched everywhere on the bike for other brand names, company logos, etc., but with no luck.
Thanks,
Bryan

 

[Alaskavan]

Angel couldn't find anything about the Hedstrom Whisperide. This leads me to wonder if you made this up, or if it is something that slipped out of Area 51 or something.
Seriously, I think you might want to hold onto this until you get it figured out. You may have a rare and possibley valuable item there.

 

[Bryan]

Angel couldn't find anything about the Hedstrom Whisperide. This leads me to wonder if you made this up, or if it is something that slipped out of Area 51 or something.
Seriously, I think you might want to hold onto this until you get it figured out. You may have a rare and possibley valuable item there.

I wish I HAD made it up. Then I could make up all the intricate details about how priceless it is and how Jay Leno is pestering me with a blank check.
Seriously, I'll hold on to it for awhile. With my luck I'd sell it, and see a story in the paper a week later about a rare bike from Hedstrom that was sold to a museum for a small fortune.

 

[Alaskavan]

Have you tried contacting Hedstrom? Aren't some portions of the company still in operation?

 

[Bryan]

Have you tried contacting Hedstrom? Aren't some portions of the company still in operation?

I tried the 800 #, and some cubicle cutie called back and said that portion of the company was discontinued after it was shut down in 2000 and auctioned off in 2001. There's no one around that was with that portion of the company, and they don't have any info at the corporate hdqtrs.

 

[Alaskavan]

Try the Records department (if you can contact them) most companies have someone who is "head archivist". It may be near impossible to find one, but if you do, they would probably enjoy digging up the info for you. Ask the cubicle cutie for the title of the person (they may not want to give a name). Send a letter to the title (Manager, Records Dept, or whatever) care of the company. It might be worth a shot.

 

[Bryan]

Try the Records department (if you can contact them) most companies have someone who is "head archivist". It may be near impossible to find one, but if you do, they would probably enjoy digging up the info for you. Ask the cubicle cutie for the title of the person (they may not want to give a name). Send a letter to the title (Manager, Records Dept, or whatever) care of the company. It might be worth a shot.

Good Idea. Gracias.