funbun

Is it possible to buy a Penny Farthing? Are there custom builders who build them?

kraftwerk 

Yes! They make "new" ones still, Most are smaller sizes, The huge wheeled ones are also seen around a bit. Vintage ones must change hands as the original drivers are force by their ostopaths I am sure I saw a web site giving th e location which I thought was weird like Queens NY or sumpthin'
It is just a matter of time before each and every young wipper snapper in your neighborhoode is running you down on sunday morning...

sivat

https://www.victorybicycles.com/
https://hiwheel.com/
https://koolstop.com/mesicek/index.html
https://www.wuk.at/hochrad/index_eng..../index_eng.php

All of those places make and sell penny farthings/ordinaries/high-wheelers or whatever else they may be called. They ain't cheap. There are 2 guys who ride the Midnight Ridazz group ride in LA who do it on high wheelers.

funbun

Cool. Question: How do you ride one? What do you do if you want to stop? How do you get off without falling off? These bikes look cool. And I would like to ride one just to see what they're like.

repechage

try

www.tallbike.com

Very cool, 52" wheel it appears, remember for inches of gear multiply by pi. (sorry did not bother locating it in keycaps)

oopfoo

The first couple of times, you will awkwardly scramble on and off the machine. Then, you will hurt yourself. Badly.

After a couple of good hurts, you'll figure out why the modern "safety bike" design is so popular. OR, you'll sufficiently damage your brain enough to enjoy the thing.

Voice of experience.

Citoyen du Monde

Stay as far away as possible from the rideable replica one. It is ghastly cheap. Its only saving grace is that the price is also cheap. The Victory or Mesicek are both reasonably faithful reproductions and are of a superior quality. The one that you can see at www.tallbike.com also would appear to be a good option, but I know of nobody who has actually received one after placing an order.

As far as riding these bikes, they are far easier to ride than you might think. There is a mounting peg on the side of the spine. You simply hold the handlebars, with one foot on the peg and then push off and step up onto the saddle and pedal away. The size of the wheel gives you enough momentum to make it virtually impossible to fall over. Dismounting is equally easy to learn, you take your peg-side leg off the pedal and reach back for the peg and then step down. If the bike is properly designed the peg will be placed at teh exact same height as the pedal, so no stretch or bend of the leg is needed to immediately find it with your foot.

What is however very dangerous is taking a "header" where you get thrown over the handlebars. This will invariably leave you with major and lasting injuries. I took just such a header and ended up with multiple fractures, resulting in a full back brace and both arms in full-length casts. The cause was not due to a riding error or mechanical failure, but rather a bone-headed repair on my part. I would still be riding the bike today if I was not obliged to promise my wife that I would never ride it again.

LWaB

Ouch!

Not all headers are that nasty however. I crashed while sprinting at the finish of an 80 km Highwheeler race (Note to potential organisers: don't put finish banner at the start of a tight and narrow 90 degree corner). Luckily for me, the crowd of Japanese tourists were just the right height. Ever seen cattledogs running over the backs of a tightly packed mob of sheep?

tomacropod

One of the few who can probably say "yes!". I'm amused by the visualisation. The last time I did something like that I nearly got kicked out of a Spiderbait gig.

- Joel

funbun

lol, now that's funny!

Citoyen du Monde

Sounds great! But apparently the rear wheel didn't go over the front wheel in true header style. Once the rear wheel goes up there isn't really anything that you can do.

LWaB

Well, to expand a little, the front wheel stopped dead when it hit the kerb. The back wheel came up, the handlebars trapped my thighs. At some point the bike rotated enough around the front axle to let me continue forward at close to 40 kph (pulling some skin off my thighs and knees). I then body-surfed the heads and shoulders of quite a few short people. I think the rear wheel continued going up but I was a little occupied at the time. The backbone of the bike got a nice kink though. I suspect that, without the soft landing, I'd have felt the same thing as the fellow I was sprinting against. He found himself a slightly less crowded group of spectators to plow into and knocked himself out.