You ever tried to ride one of those crazy things? I have. There’s a STEP welded to the frame so that you can step up and get into the seat and reach the pedals! You have to start the thing moving and leap onto it in motion! Crazy design. just… nuts.
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A fellow’s unmentionables were definitely in serious peril on one of those. I’d rather ride a too tall for me tenspeed… This is going to be quite a ride…
Do the cyclists have to remain on board their bike during the canoe part? If so Mr. Pennyfarthing is going to have a really bad time…
BMX-precursor. You should see it jam up on a half-pipe.
yours has no step
“Crazy design. just… nuts.”
Says the crazy old guy, who rides a Unicycle over the hills, through the woods to the pub.
And back again after a few at the pub.
I guess it’s better to Unicycle when drunk, than to drive while drunk. Maybe?
Wait till he hits the downhill….
My brother and his son ride them in parades in Portland and Falmouth, Maine!
Yup, just nuts!
Actually, I think that bike with the huge front wheel is called a penny-farthing. A boneshaker is an earlier bike with steel-rimmed wooden wheels that are a more manageable diameter.
I wonder if I’m the one in the all-touring-bikes team… Probably… (I heavily implied it in my application form.)
BTW, touring bikes make good all-around bikes: tires wider than road racing bikes, so handle dirt better (though not quite as good as mountain bikes), but still configured to do quite well on roads. They just happen to be better at handling luggage than a regular road bike, which is just great for, you know… touring…
Meanwhile, I have to nitpick, here: I love the fact that someone actually brought a penny-farthing to the contest (and is dressed the part, to boot, complete with bowler hat and handlebar mustache), but the seat should be much higher up: it then allows a much better transfer of energy from the legs to the pedals.
This is the equivalent of what’s called a crank-forward bike (which usually has normal sized wheels), and I don’t think those are particularly good at competing in any way, though I guess they may be comfortable to ride, or they wouldn’t have been made in the first place.
Still this is halfway between an actual penny-farthing seat position and posture, and the posture adopted by recumbent bike riders, who actually have a back to their seats, upon which they can, I suppose, push for extra strength if needed (but even if they don’t push against the back of the seat, at least the high-backed seat prevents them from falling behind the seat as they pedal, which might happen here). Their actual advantage is not the efficiency of power transfer, but rather their aerodynamic design and posture, which makes them more efficient overall (except when going uphill… a recumbent TRIKE would be better for that…)