Pennyfarthings / penny-farthings / high-wheelers / ordinary bicycles

I just noticed that we don't seem to have a thread about penny-farthings, or pennyfarthings, or 'high-wheelers', or 'pennies' as many contemporary users call them, or 'ordinary bicycles'. For those who don't know, these are bikes with direct drive whose front wheel has to be quite large. On this heap of terminology see the Wikipedia article:

Although the name "penny-farthing" is now the most common, it was
probably not used until the machines were nearly outdated; the first
recorded print reference is from 1891 in Bicycling News. It comes from
the British penny and farthing coins, one much larger than the other,
so that the side view resembles a penny leading a farthing. For most
of their reign, they were simply known as "bicycles". In the late
1890s, the name "ordinary" began to be used, to distinguish them from
the emerging safety bicycles, and this term or hi-wheel (and variants)
is preferred by many modern enthusiasts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny-farthing

Somewhat obviously, we're interested in them on here because they're fixed-wheel bikes, though not chain-driven. They're very beautiful and iconic bikes.

Here are some previous threads about them:

A thread on Joff Summerfield's round-the-world rides on a penny:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/139013/

These smaller bikes were made a few years ago and may still be being sold:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/134354/

The Knutsford Great Race takes place every ten years and was won by the forum's own kat and Charlotte in 2010, so that they are still the reigning champions at the time of writing:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/159222/

There have also been quite a few editions of the Ordinary Race at the Smithfield Nocturne.

My mate popped up to see me at work a couple of months back on this.....ticked me something off the bucket list!

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Ha. Is that you in the picture or your mate? (I assume it's you.)

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Those handlebars/ grips look insanely hard work! ^^^

Ha! Sorry fella, only just seen this thread again!
Yes, that's me, looking a bit scared, but ticking off something on my biket-list!

Yey! I've always wanted to have a good bash at Penny Farthinginging, and lets not forget one of Ingerlahnds finest Penny Farthing-ists still holds the LEJOG record ->https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pilkington_Mills

scroll to 2.20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-xmREVh8OE&feature=youtu.be

Can a penny-farthing be set to freewheel rather than solely fixed? I'd like to make one tri-legal, if possible.

If you could, it would then need both front and rear brakes in order to be road legal.

Simple enough to add a rear brake, but looks like these guys may have both aspects covered in the factory model - pretty fugly though:

http://www.alternativebikes.com/bikes_coinsta.html

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/20/i-love-my-bike-i-call-it-penny

Got a nice video of me riding one, easy to get on and ride but then really hard to get off so I jumped/fell in the end 2 maybe 3 times.

https://twitter.com/MamaMoose_Be/status/880411135354310656

Bit of a dredge, but I've been invited by Essex penny farthings for a ride out today, before some music in a field tonight, followed by chariot racing tomorrow!
I have no idea what the chariot racing entails, but ill be sure to post back, unless I've had the "thumb down" ....or that just for the gladiators? 😁

Sounds all kinds of excellent.

I'm afraid I don't know what they mean by chariot racing, either, but I do expect a report back. :)

Six penny’s, ten miles, two cafe’s, no endo’s!

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Great! So did you ask about chariot racing?

I just read that Jeremy Vine has one, too.

Chariot racing is tomorrow..... two BSO’s, mounted to a small chariot! Racing around a small grass track. If anyone wants to go, he said it’s basically more the merrier.

Venue. Rainbow Rural CM61ND

Ha, shame I'm otherwise engaged. Would have been there otherwise. Have fun!

Finally got me a penny farthing!

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/21/buy-a-classic-sport-photograph-penny-farthing-racing

I've never heard of one with a front wheel diameter of 2 metres, but you never know. The link above is obviously a sales pitch to shell out £55 for an artily-printed picture, so apologies for forwarding spam, but I think it's a nice image all the same, plus it's at Herne Hill.

At last, the real thing...

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