As I wrote above, my experience dates back to some of the very earliest bikes that they made. Hopefully in the subsequent 20+ years they have learned from their many mistakes and remedied them. I am however somewhat doubtful as I have also ridden a 1996 one bought by a friend and it appeared to suffer from the same 'defects'.

1) The steel used in the frame is very soft which means that the headsets cups quickly loosen up and there isn't much that you can do to fix it.
2) The quality of the bearings are very poor, especially the rear wheel.
3) The tiring is not well fitted and tends to twist on the rims.
4) the spoke nipples loosen up with incredible regularity.

and most importantly they are a far call from the original in every respect: handlebar position, saddle position, rear wheel position. Put one of the ridable replica bone shakers next to a 'real' antique one and you will see how different the two are. The rideable replicas ride very poorly when compared to the original. If you want to really experience the ride of a penny farthing, they are not representative. They are a novelty wheeled toy. As mentioned above, they are however cheap, so I suppose that you are getting what you pay for.