Penny Farthing Race

[MattTuck]

shameless rip from reddit. Figured some here might enjoy.


https://gfycat.com/YawningHorribleHerring

[bbeck66]

That is awesome

[Davist]

too cool, we had one at the shop I worked at years ago, once you get up on it, rides better than expected, but can't imagine racing it!.. It was a "modern" (ie not antique) version made by Boneshaker. Little step built into the back for starting out, always felt like the lone ranger jumping on his horse or something.. The owner rode it in the 4th of July parade.

[yakstone]

Cool little video. I have been looking for one of those to use as a wall hanger in our bike trainer area.
Pretty cool.

[MattTuck]

To my eye, the cranks look a little short... not sure if the giant wheel is just playing tricks with my eyes. Also, I guess setback is different, so maybe shorter cranks were the optimum for that design.

Took some real courage to race one of those at speed, in close proximity to others. a crash would be like falling 8 feet.

[likebikes]

what's up with the guys carrying the tandem bike upside down at the end of the video?

[pasadena]

Mark Beaumont is going to attempt the world hour record on a penny farthing

[Ralph]

http://www.victorybicycles.com/

Lady in our area co owns this business.....Victory Bicycles....Makes hi wheelers. Makes them from scratch. She also builds regular wheels for many of us. She is an exceptional person. Good rider also....of about anything.

[mt2u77]

I was out on a rail-trail tour across the state, 20 miles from anything, when I came across two stone faced guys on high wheelers cruising along in complete period correct dress. It was kind of a bizarro moment with no cars, pavement, or any other signs of development, as if I had traveled back in time. I shook my head for a bit, but then thought, dang that looks fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bironi]

Imagine a header at that speed, no helmet.
Ouch!

[cmbicycles]

An uncle on my wife's side rode one of those all the way up the east coast. He fell and broke both arms at one point, there are pictures of him in casts riding the bike. Pretty cool. He used to have a whole collection of them, including the one he rode up the east coast.

[Louis]

I was out on a rail-trail tour across the state, 20 miles from anything, when I came across two stone faced guys on high wheelers cruising along in complete period correct dress. It was kind of a bizarro moment with no cars, pavement, or any other signs of development, as if I had traveled back in time. I shook my head for a bit, but then thought, dang that looks fun.


"Willoughby. This stop Willoughby. Willoughby."

[Mr. Pink]

About ten years ago, I was at a bike event in Frederick, Md.. Nice ride, poorly supported. But, Greg Lemond participated, and that was a treat. Rode with him a few miles, and watched him interact with many others for no real financial gain, and was impressed. Nice guy. Anyway, part of this event was a penny farthing race in downtown Frederick. Before the race, I got to see Lemond ride one around the parking lot of our hotel. It was only his second time on one. I have pictures on my hard drive at home, Im traveling. It was something to watch. His "coach", a serious hippy sort of character was famous for riding one 3000 miles across America. Quite an achievement. Yes, they're direct drive, so, downhills are ridden with the feet up on the bars! Yee gads. I think he had a brake, but, still.
Mounting and dismounting certainly takes skill.

Oh, and a woman participant in the race wound up in the hospital. I'm surprised she was the only one. It's a hilly town. Crazy.

[likebikes]

what's up with the guys carrying the tandem bike upside down at the end of the video?

anyone know?

[bironi]

Maybe it keeps the pedals away from the carrier's legs. Just a guess.

[MattTuck]

what's up with the guys carrying the tandem bike upside down at the end of the video?

Is your question, why are they carrying it upside down? or why is there essentially a tandem version of a diamond frame bike when the video purports to show a race between penny farthings?

For the first question, my guesses are: 1) convenience. 2) this is from a period when they believed smoking would make you a better cyclist, so they may have believed a lot of crazy stuff, like carrying bikes upside down made them faster.

For the second question: 1) the video is from a later period and the penny farthing race was a novelty meant to entertain the crowd. 2) you've just found the first concrete evidence of a time traveler bringing a modern tandem bike back in time to win some races.

[Mark McM]

To my eye, the cranks look a little short... not sure if the giant wheel is just playing tricks with my eyes. Also, I guess setback is different, so maybe shorter cranks were the optimum for that design.

Yes, many Penny Farthing bikes had cranks shorter than commonly used on bikes today. The reasons are two fold:

These bikes are direct drive, so the whole reason for the big front wheel was to increase the "development" (distance travelled per wheel revolution ) - or the effective gear ratio. The bigger the wheel, the further you could go for each wheel revolution. The limitations on the size of the wheel are: 1) The length of the riders legs; and 2) the length of the cranks. So small cranks allowed you to use a bigger wheel.

The second reason is that even with a vey large front wheel, the development is still small by today's standards. For example, a 52" direct front wheel has the same effective "gear ratio" as a 700c wheel with 52x26 gearing. That's a fairly small gear, so a racer with this gearing would have to ride a very high cadence. Higher cadences are easier with shorter cranks.

[likebikes]

yeah, the farthing race is cool, just that bit at the end of the upside-down tandem struck me as a bit of a red herring or black swan type thing.