UKC

Watched an Alpine race recently which had over 6000 cylists entered including one guy on a Penny Farthing.

He was going up a Alpine pass through the hairpins. No gears!

It looked bloody scary - he was a long way up....

Anyone tried riding one? How difficult is it? Partiuculaly getting on and off?

In reply to Trangia:

Getting off looks spectacularly easy.

In reply to abseil:


That would be my worry!!

In reply to Trangia:


Anyway I've had a good idea - make them compulsory for all Tour de France entrants next year - bump up the number of TV viewers.

In reply to Trangia:

Impressive stuff - must have thighs of steel!

Rock up the the London Nocturn next year - there's a race just for them!

http://www.londonnocturne.com/raceprogramme.php

In reply to LastBoyScout:



They even have a folding bike race, I saw one of these where the competitors had to be dressed in office attire and had to run to their bikes in a LeMans style start, assemble them and then and the end fold the bike away and carry it over the line.

In reply to abseil:

Or a new doping penalty perhaps?

In reply to Trangia:

I've ridden a penny farthing. They are great fun, and surprisingly easy to control at slow speed. They have small pegs on the back. You push along with one foot on bottom peg, bit like its a scooter. Then you step up , sit down and engage feet on the pedals. Not hard at all. I found it pretty easy. Nice and comfy as well.

In reply to Trangia:

Tried one a few years ago at some National Trust event. Once you get going they are surprisingly pleasant to ride. Need a bit of confidence to get on. Step up from peg and start pedalling immediately. Any hesitation and you are off. Getting off without falling, dropping the bike was the hardest part for me.

In reply to Trangia:

Not sure why those canopied ones featured on the 1960's TV series 'The Prisoner' never really caught on.

Never mind, here's someone pootling down Laggan WolfTrax on one:

youtube.com/watch?v=4vqTpw6L2pI&

In reply to llechwedd:

after watching the penny farthing mountain bike video

mrs Yeti just said "this is why women live longer than men"

lol looks like fun, I have a unicycle and so far I've learned how to fall off

In reply to yeti:

Could you not get stabilisers for it?

Even one extra wheel world help?

In reply to The Lemming:

lol

In reply to Trangia:

I thought the issue with those is that potholes and fast braking would make you faceplant, to the extent that some of them even had handlebars designed to allow you to get your legs over them and attempt to land feet first.

Fun fact: What we know as normal bikes used to be known as safety bicycles when they were introduced, and that if there had been an internet then their ukcycling.com forums would have been full of people accusing their owners of cowardice

In reply to davidbeynon:

What brakes ?

In reply to davidbeynon:

The origin of the term "breakneck speed" apparently.

In reply to Jim C:

pushing back on the pedals mainly although I remember reading somewhere that some PFs did have spoon brakes, which can't have been particularly effective.

In reply to Trangia:

I saw a guy on a penny farthing just outside Bakewell on Saturday. He was steaming along on it too. Brave guy.

In reply to Trangia:


Was it just up or down the pass as well? Since uphill would be nuts but downhill would be something else.

In reply to dissonance:

I don't know. I only watched him going up, but presumably he went down the other side....

It's a bit big to go on a car roof!

In reply to Trangia:

Crazyguyonabike did a world tour on a penny farthing.

Here is a photo with Everest in the background.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/pic/?pic_id=228003

In reply to Trangia:

I Rode one once, getting on was easy but I couldn't get the hang of getting off without falling.

In reply to llechwedd:

In reply to August West:




Great picture. He appears to have a calliper brake on the farthing. Interested, too, that curved forks aren't part of what is clearly a modern repro