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This Wheel Size is Blowing Up!

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The larger the wheel less torque from a hub motor, imagine penny farthing with a hub motor .

penny farthing

Last time I saw a penny farthing there was a group of them late in the year in fancy dress and one was Father Christmas. As I said to them then "I`v seen it all now!"........... Should have got a selfie we were all stopped at a junction at the time.;)

The penny farthing is probably the scariest looking contraption out there in bikeland.

 

Just the whole concept of having those small bars across your knees, and its propensity to topple over frontwards, meaning you could be in for the worlds largest faceplant.

 

It was much better when they swopped the small back wheel to the front.

The penny farthing is probably the scariest looking contraption out there in bikeland.

 

Just the whole concept of having those small bars across your knees, and its propensity to topple over frontwards, meaning you could be in for the worlds largest faceplant.

 

It was much better when they swopped the small back wheel to the front.

Google “Johnny Payphone bikes” for some whacky bikes

The penny farthing is probably the scariest looking contraption out there in bikeland.

 

Just the whole concept of having those small bars across your knees, and its propensity to topple over frontwards, meaning you could be in for the worlds largest faceplant.

 

It was much better when they swopped the small back wheel to the front.

The penny farthing's terrible accident rate by the rider ending up head first on the road has inspired a number of phrases in English which we still see in use:

 

'Taking a header'

 

'Coming a cropper'

 

And much less common - 'The hospital flip'

 

I've never heard the last one myself, but it is on Google.

 

There is an interesting book by a chap who in the 1880s rode a high wheeler across the USA from SF to NY, took ship to Liverpool, then rode across Europe, the Middle East, India and then China. He was called Thomas Stevens, which was the maiden name of one of my grandmothers.

 

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5136

 

Free and a good read about a huge adventure.

 

Also writing about him here:

 

 

https://longreads.com/2022/04/26/thomas-stevens-sports-porn/

Edited by Tony1951

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