The other day while in a taxi cab in France I saw someone cycling past on what appeared to be a modern-day penny-farthing, but a lot smaller than the old ones. A “euro-cent” maybe? The front wheel was not much bigger than a standard mountain-bike wheel, and the back wheel was only a few inches in diameter. I think it had a bright green frame connecting the two.
I only saw a flash of it as we went past at French-taxi-driver speed, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. So has anyone seen one of these things? Is some enterprising bike manufacturer going for the retro look? I’ve Googled but just keep coming up with historical sites.
Hawk Cycles is one of the companies making them, but I’ve seen similar ones made in Taiwan and/or China as well. I think they are mostly novelty items, about as practical as Razor scooters.
Thanks. I have no intention of buying one, just thought it was quite cool. Although to be fair, you can look cool on anything when you’re pedalling along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice…
The main problem with any small wheeled bike is that it is hard to control and takes extra energy to keep upright.
This is because you lose most of the gyroscopic stability of a large wheel.
When I was a tad I learned this the hard way. I bought a “paper carrier’s bike”, which has a small front wheel so you can have a deep front wire basket to hold the papers. When full of papers, of course the front was hard to handle, but even with just the light wire basket the bike was a lot of work to keep upright.
I think it would be even cooler to ride a full-size replica… Though penny-farthings are notorious for throwing the rider forward when braking too hard or hitting bump on the road.
Stability has more to do with steering geometry than wheel size. I suspect your “paper carrier’s bike” had insufficient trail (distance between steering axle and contact patch). I’ve owned several folding bikes and recumbent bikes with 16" front wheels, and they were all very stable.
