Agreed. I rode one for a couple of hundred feet. Scary. I think having panniers on it makes it much safer, moving the center of gravity farther behind the front axle.

The short cranks bothered me, and the front wheel pulled left and right as I cranked. It was basically torque steer! Do you end up pedaling smoothly and not torquing hard?

Ordinary Bike Shop? I don't think that bike was in any rideable condition; I could be wrong though. In all honesty, I'm shocked it took that long for it to be ripped off - it was locked up outside their shop to a gate. Sucks either way, though. That's a great shop with *very* nice owner/wrenches.


Panniers makes it way worse, just FYI. No only are you pulling that weight, but getting on and off goes from being a breeze, to being an Olympic feat of leg swinging and jumping. The further-back center of gravity does allow for use of the spoon brake more than you would normally, which was nice going down HW1/HW101 in California (hint: it's steep!).

The cranks are short, but you get used to it. Riding an ordinary, while being similar to riding a bicycle, is a completely different monster. You have to relearn a brand new pedal stroke, which makes the wheel go straight on its own. Once you change, it rides a straight line no problem, hands or not. When mashing up monster grades, you find yourself pulling the opposite handlebar of your pedal stroke toward you, gaining more leverage, and keeping the wheel straight, while still shimmying up the hill.

The Eagle however, is completely different than anything. It's like expecting to ride a bike, but actually sailing a river raft with a tomato plant as the sail. Maybe it's not that bad, but you get the picture.

The guy who built my antique was EH Corson who also built the Star cycle which is somewhat similar to the Eagle. I have two pre-1900 machines but no ordinary yet. This one is 1898-1902 or so. I still need six spoke nipples and to finish the saddle.

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27 004 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

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17 049 by barnstormerbikes, on Flickr

That stuff looks oddly like medieval torture equipment. So many spikey things!