DIY Penny Farthing

harry76

harry76

Well-Known Member
I absolutely love old bicycles..... the older the better, and ive always wanted a penny farthing, thought about it for a while trying to make one. Did a little research and some people just used large unicycle wheels.... but thats not big enough for my liking..... then i heard of people taking a number of bicycle rims (cut and welded together to form a larger diametre rim) and using S/S wire for spokes, and hose or solid rubber hose for tyres.

Then tonight i came across this build, this guy is a craftsman and made his own penny farthing..... i cant tell if he used the method i mentioned earlier for the front rim but he used the solid rubber tyres.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OptGmDkEwJs&feature=player_embedded

Note: first 2 1/2 minutes are him riding it, watch the end to see the build

Makes me really wanna build one now, obviously not to this high standard
 
Very cool build. Great job. Wonder if its as hard to ride as it looks? I just cant seem to see any place to bolt a motor? LOL
 
What would it be like to pop a wheele on those... I expect a disaster. Seems that front wheel drive prevents this, but try getting a reverse gear like on the over 1200 CC motorcycles and pulse the throttle for laughs:)

I had seen one of these an the person was pretty good a controling it like the guy in the video. Not motorized type it was. It was on a bike/pedestrian trail so dealing with cars was not an issue. It had the solid rubber tires too.

MT
 
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