Ford High Wheeler?

[Maxey]

I originally posted this in the bikeforums.net website, haven't received any informative replies, but one kind soul suggested I post it the thecabe.com and so here I am. I hope it's okay to post something like this as my first post.

This bike is owned by my stepfather and I promised him I would post it and try and get some opinions about its origins. I kind of owed him as he went and paid for and picked up a couple vintage French bikes for me in the last couple of weeks.

The notable thing about this bike is that it has a Ford logo on it. However, the logo is upside down, which led me to think this bike is a home built that used a Ford car part for at least part of the frame. I really know next to nothing about this kind of cycle, but any and all opinions, information, critiques and insults are welcome.

You can sort of make out the Ford logo here (picture was rotated right side up

Here's where the logo is located:

An overall profile shot of the cycle:

A picture of its very aged seat:

And a shot of the stepdad on the cycle at a car show:

And a shot I thought worth including because it cracks me up. Almost makes me want to try riding one of these things. The stepdad has offered, but man, that's a long way to fall off a bicycle.

 

[Maxey]

What I meant to say with the first photo showing the logo is that the logo is actually upside down as you look at the bike, so the photo was rotated 180 degrees to show the Ford lettering.

 

[mike cates]

The FORD logo appeared on the radius rods used on Model T cars. This radius rod transitioned from a round at the smaller end into a flatted side and radiused edges piece of thick tubing. It had a seam running along its length on one side as it was a formed piece over an internal die.
How do I know this....? Well years ago I made a 57" high wheel bicycle which I sold years ago and used these very same radius rods for the front fork legs.
I welded up the seam along the one edge on each fork leg and ground it to match the curvature of the opposite side so it looked like a fully formed piece of tubing. I left the FORD stamped script logo facing outwards about a third of the distance from the front fork crown on each fork leg and wondered "if and when" it were found one day, someone would wonder if FORD made a high wheel bicycle.
Your bicycle shows some ingenuity on roll forming the flatted length going into a radius to match the front wheel radius of the radius rod now forming it into a back bone and grafting the steering head plate into it. Whomever made the bike probably wasn't thinking to have the FORD logo be right side up when finished.
So now we know there are at least two replica high wheelers out there with the FORD script stamped into them!
Mike Cates, CA.