NEW YORK -- There was a reward, a toll-free tip line and a news conference -- all for a teeny lost bike.

But this wasn't just any bike. The foot-high, 6-inch-wide chrome contraption belongs to Bello Nock, the daredevil clown star of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus appearing at Madison Square Garden.

Bello's toll-free tip line: 1-877-606-3052

The bitty bike was taken from a Manhattan street Friday, while Bello, well, clowned around.

"Can I please have my bike back?" he said a day after the disappearance. “I am very upset."

The orange-haired, Florida-born clown said he can't replace his trademark bike, which was custom-built in Mexico City and has been in his family of circus performers for a dozen years.

Without it, the man once named America's Best Clown by Time magazine will have to adjust the show Bellobration, which was named for him.

The bike, which is about as high as his foot is long, "is not something I can go buy in a store," he said. "I'd have to find someone willing and able to make it."

Bello keeps him miniature bike in a big suitcase the same color as his trademark yellow-orange hair, along with other favorite props, the New York Post reported Saturday.

On Saturday, hours before the Garden show opened, he was still trying to find it -- and explaining how he lost it.

It all happened on the way to the circus.

On Friday, the 38-year-old performer and two other clowns had visited a Grand Central Terminal shoe repair shop, which took extra care shining their big show shoes.

They were headed back to the Garden when a camera crew showed up at the station's Vanderbilt Avenue exit. The three clowns put on an impromptu show, doing handstands on the hood of a yellow cab, with Bello hopping on his bike. He then rested it against another bike tied to a street sign.

On the way back to the circus in a van, the Post said, he suddenly realized he'd forgotten his beloved prop.

He went back and tried to find it, but it had disappeared.

"I don't believe anybody stole the bike," Bello said Saturday after holding a news conference to put out the word. "I think someone took it so they could return it to me."

The circus offered a $1,000 reward and urged anyone with information to call the toll-free number, 1-877-606-3052.