Montgomery Ward T555 Terrain Cycle

[T555]

Hi, here is a picture of my Montgomery Ward T555 Terrain Cycle. This was bought in 1972 by my family. Central States Tool & Die Co. was the manufacturer. It was priced at around $345.00. It sat in my parents basement for about 30 years. I cleaned the tank, rebuilt the carb, changed the oil, and put in a new spark plug, the 5 HP briggs fired right up. I am in the process or restoring it but am torn between repainting it with the original color green or going with some kind of metal flake color. It's a fun little machine!

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[steven Durham]

Take a look at my photo section I have what is believed to be a Trike made like the same company but it has full rear suspension. I have found only one other person who has one with the big roll cage and the rear suspension but he has failed to send me pictures of his machine. I would stick with the factory green like in the Ward's brochure.
Steve

 

[T555]

Nice bike(s) Steve, thanks for sharing the pictures. I will probably stick with the factory color. I can get it duplicated along with the decals.
:devil2:
Rick

 

[kbs8ball]

nice trike...bitchin seat!!

 

[Randy]

Man good for you, that is awesome. My dad has the same bike but it's just a "roller" And is in no where near that condition. Your trike is awesome. A wail back he was tring to find info on his and he had no luck. I'll send him the link to this page, he sure will like yours. Very Very nice..

Randy

 

[wayne]

Hi, here is a picture of my Montgomery Ward T555 Terrain Cycle. This was bought in 1972 by my family. Central States Tool & Die Co. was the manufacturer. It was priced at around $345.00. It sat in my parents basement for about 30 years. I cleaned the tank, rebuilt the carb, changed the oil, and put in a new spark plug, the 5 HP briggs fired right up. I am in the process or restoring it but am torn between repainting it with the original color green or going with some kind of metal flake color. It's a fun little machine!

[/IMG]

keep it green be neter red but keepn it green,,it is nice

 

[T555]

Randy, tell your dad to go to 3 WHeeLeR WoRLD Montgomery Ward T555. There is a write up on the T555 done by one of the mini bike magazines from October, 1971.
Rick

 

[dave dickson]

Here's my last trike, I think I'll keep this one, Had 4 all together, but traded 2 and sold the red one.
dave

 

[Randy]

Thanks!
Randy

 

[steven Durham]

Hi Rick : One thing I noticed on your trike was it still had the factory chain guard. I talked to a tool and die company owner in Omaha, Nebraska. He remembered Central States Tool & Die and his father had worked for them before starting his own company and he said that every thing they did was built way over the top for strength and reliability. These type of trikes will always be keepers and you have a head start on most because of it's condition.
Steve XX:hack::grind::weld: XX

 

[T555]

Thanks Steve for the information. Yeah the original front fender and chain guard is still intack (lost the decal on the chain guard somewhere in time?). However, even though these had added metal support pieces welded behind the bolt holes, hairline stress cracks still formed from vibration around these openings. The support brackets did not crack . I am just going to weld the cracks up, grind the areas smooth before sending them to the chrome shop.
Rick

 

[gumpit]

Any idea if green was the only original color? I tried scraping down some of the red paint on mine but I can't find any green anywhere. I know my seat covers are not original and the engine was replaced. And a centrifical clutch was used. But if the red that it is wasn't original. I might just go with another color. Metalflake Blue? What do you think?

 

[wild woody]

Ive got one its metalic red with a fiberglass body in good shape i ride it on weekends fun trike ill have to post some pictures

 

[steven Durham]

Wild Woody: It would be nice to have some pictures of your trike seeing that it has a fiberglass body . Steve

 

[wild woody]

heres some of my pictures of my t 555

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[steven Durham]

T-555

heres some of my pictures of my t 555

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There was information on the T-555 machines that said that they were thinking about a fiberglass body for the machine . Yours is the first I have ever seen and thank your, but if you get a chance add some more fron the front shots so that the body shape can be defined.
Steve

 

[wild woody]

will do this weekend and will get them posted monday

 

[thejunkman]

Hello everyone, I just registered after finding this forum/thread on this topic for some research I was doing. Anyways I know this thread is old and has not had activity in several months I thought I would post up a link to an article I wrote concerning ATC's and especially the Terrain Cycle that I grew up riding. Anyways I thought a few that have posted to this thread might enjoy MY opinion on the subject. The article tells it all.

Unsafe at any speed, 3 wheelers | ATVMagBlog

 

[steven Durham]

Well I never wrote any articles but I have been a TRIKER since 1971. And one the one side of the coin we have ATV's and one the other side of the TRIKE coin we have ATC's
As for me I would never ride a ATC a vehicle where you sit on top of the motor and ride.
The ATV is a TRIKE that you sit in with a much lower center of gravity with the rider sits between the front end and the engine. Major division in this category is addressed with increased speed a fully suspended trike and much better braking is a must have. The non suspended trikes had the big soft low pressure tires for some comfort for the rider, but no one ever kept the pressure that low and they had too much rebound for impacted objects and that made the trike want to lift that wheel and it could and often did result in roll overs.
Lets say I having been a dealer and very active in the racing of off road trikes have seen just about all sides of this ATV coin. I have raced every style of track and open terrain there was available. True it was a long time ago but so was the trike evolution that we are talking about.
Back to the ATC trike side of the coin. I rode a Honda 90 back when they came out that ride of 5 minuets sealed the deal for me. The industry grew and grew and ended because of the injuries of riders and the unresolved irreversible top heavy style of riding that takes much more rider effort in keeping that trike a safe ride and as the power of the ATC trikes increased so did the risks. and when little riders were let loose on big machines the way too often the emergency room and media coverage lead to the restrictions and eventual manufactures subject to high cost law suits. But they just switched over to the Quad market that is heading in the same direction.
Well my soap box time is about used up for this issue so I remain an ATV TRIKER forever
Steve

 

[thejunkman]

Interesting comment, although I think you missed the point of my article. I was comparing the two machines. And I just posted it here for people to see another version of the Terrain cycle.