Whatever Happened to Pee-wee Herman’s Bicycle from ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure?’

One of the biggest stars of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure besides Pee-wee himself was his iconic red bicycle. Tim Burton‘s feature film directorial debut follows the beloved character as he searches for his stolen bicycle across the U.S., going on many adventures and meeting an eclectic group of people along the way.

What many fans may not know is that 14 bikes were used during production. 13 of them were created by the vintage bike shop Pedal Pusher in Newport Beach and one was very special, custom-built by a stuntman named Gary Littlejohn. Littlejohn also helped created the first BMX bikes.

That particular red bike was seen in the scene where Pee-wee crashes into a curb and during the Warner Brothers lot chase. After Pee-wee made his way into our hearts and the world lost its star Paul Reubens in 2023, you may be wondering: whatever happened to Pee-Wee’s bikes? And no, it is not in the basement of the Alamo.

PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), 1985, schwinn bikes

Everett Collection

One of them was recently sold in an auction for a whopping $125,000 on May 3, 2025. Van Eaton Galleries, the premier gallery and auction house for Disneyana, announced that one of the screen-used bicycles ridden by Reubens, the custom-built stunt bike, was sold. It was restored slightly to match how it looked in the 1985 film.

Another red bicycle from the film is located at Pittsburgh’s Bicycle Heaven museum. The owner of the museum, Craig Morrow, stumbled upon the bike at a bike swap in Portland, Ind. about a decade ago and added it to his impressive collection.

PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, Pee Wee Herman, 1985

Warner Brothers/Everett Collection

Morrow shared with TRIB Live, “They destroyed some of them after the movie and there’s only four to exist. I was told that Paul Reubens had two of them, the Bicycle Museum of America (in Bremen, Ohio) has one and we have the other one. Talking to the guy I got it from and the movie prop people who built the bike, it’s definitely the bike. They never sent the bikes out with any kind of paperwork, but there are a couple things about it that nobody would know except the prop people, so it’s definitely legit.”