Modern Day Penny Farthing?

i just stumble upon this in Flickr, didn't know they actually make them nowadays, almost mistook it for a child bike due to mistaking the front wheel for an normal MTB one.

is that old news?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/2635598543_1f6db0bd79_b.jpg

Could be a custom job, not hard to have made up. (??)

I done a quick google search, you can actually buy one for 420 of your hard earned cash.

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/112693.html

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/112693.html

Don't let ASM see that, he will have a yellow saddle on it and be straight up Pentoville road.

slack lock!

http://www.unicycle.uk.com/ sell them for £100 less. Alternatively, they also sell the Qu-ax Monster Bike with 36" wheels. That could make for an entertaining project.

i organised an offroad pursuit at ssuk08.com this may on these...

lots of fun, suprisingly stable, you can get some real speed!

first go last november in scotland....

last may when i had a few beers and had some confidence round the chicane!

Tom on Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2475081085_b1a9bed4ed.jpg?v=0@@AMEPARAM@@2475081085@@AMEPARAM@@b1a9bed4ed

charlie th bike monger was clearly born for the penny farthing...

Charlie the Bike Monger on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

next time i have some spare cash i am getting one

that poor man is being chased by all those beastly coloured robots on that bike. It's such a shame.

I want one.

it may be the solution to a bike that would not be easily stolen!

It just looks like stupid fun for lunchtime outings to Monmouth Coffee.

Plus... no more chain slack.

Impossible to get away at speed.

Had a go one one of those at some 'bikeability' type thing (you could try hand bikes, tiny bikes, ones with wobbly wheels etc) and they are ace. All of a sudden you feel all victorian and superiour to everyone else (prob cos you are looking down on them).

Only did a few laps on it but it was v comfortable and very easy to ride. Can't rememeber what the breaking set up was though.

Theres a woman who i see riding one of these regularly round Battersea, took a pic of it locked up on Nortcote Road

I want one of these

maybe one for the 'how not to lock your bike' thread?

Would look sweet with a spok and ourys

I found this rather interesting take on the big wheel a couple of months ago in Northern Thailand. The other two pics are of an Alley Cat race I happened to catch the start of the same day.

https://picasaweb.google.com/107776310854563975832/ChiangMaiBikes?feat=directlink

Back end of last year I managed to get over to watch the great race in Knutsford, penny farthing race run every 10 years. Most of the kit used there was original although there were a few modern machines doing the rounds, mostly with crazy kids riding them doing insane speeds down the straight by the lake. I only had the phone with me but Google seems to have a fair selection of pics from the event:

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=the+great+race+penny+farthing

EDIT - This is probably the best set of pics I could find from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_greg/4960681799/in/photostream/

Talking with one of the guys (older dude with the pith hat if you're looking at the pics) the big problem with the modern machines is the weight, apparently they just don't make the forks like they used to and with such a limited market nobody seems to have the incentive to machine up to do so.

Reps to the woman that was racing that day. Apparently she had completed a 130mile overnight road race on the same machine just a couple of days before..

If you were the smart engineery type, you could make an overdrive hub; each turn of the pedals would give two turns of the wheel (or whatever ratio you wanted). This'd mean you could get a decent high-speed ratio on a small 26" wheel.

You could also use it to make a really really tiny folding bike - like two 16" wheels, handlebar and a saddle, and that's it. Wheel size would be limited by minimum crank length I suppose.

hmmmmm. Those new ones look a bit shite, also, they are not really that big, 36" wheel - should be more like 54" +

They are tough to ride, but quite good fun, braking and going up or down hills kind of sucks, and slow tight turns are pretty tricky, but once you master the getting on and more importantly the dismount they can be fairly rideable, did a few 25 miles + rides on one when I was younger.

Saw a race like that in France about 15 years ago, although no one wore helmets, and the finishing straight was cobbled.

Was in Barcelona recently and spied this in a bike shop down a back street. The bloke let me have a go on it and it was as easy to ride as the photo looks awkward. Couldn't get much pace up in the limited space on his street, but the thing had suspension which combined with the gyroscopic effect of the front wheel on the massive bars made for a ridiculous ride.

Korean apparently... funny but pants!

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Penny Farthing Spok!

How has no-one posted this yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYPxD4W2B28