The other day, I was walking down Halsted here in Chicago when some guy whizzed by on Division Street on a rather odd modified bicycle. The bottom of the bike had a normal frame, and normal wheels. However, an additional frame had been constructed on top of the main frame which raised the seat, pedals, and handlebar to a height of a bout, oh I dunno, say 10-12 feet. Really high. Much higher than a standard penny-farthing big-wheel bike. Other people in the area have noted teams of these extra-tall bikes over the last few months, but nobody knows what in the heck the are.
So my questions are: Anybody know what I’m on about here? What are these bikes, where do they come from, why do people ride them (I suppose some people just need attention.) Secondly, how do you get on and off one of these bikes and what happens when you stop? Just tip over? I seem to recall with penny-farthings a ladder being used, but I don’t know either what the riders do when they come to a full stop. You can easily tip over without hurting yourself, but getting back up would be difficult. With the bike I saw, you’d probably suffer some damage if you tried to do this.
They’re called “tallbikes”. It’s the latest fad in oddball bicycles, unless there’s something newer I haven’t heard about (wouldn’t be surprising). Sort of a follow-up to “chopper” bicycles.
Google for “tallbikes” or “tall bikes”. A good place to start is C.H.U.N.K. 666.
I believe some of them have little platform steps welded on to the frame for mounting, but I’ve never seen one in person so I don’t know how they manage it. I may be finding out soon, as my sweetie just got a welder and has been talking about them for a while.
I’d imagine these tall machines would be quite hard to ride.
The penny farthing, or Ordinary cycles as those in the cycling game call them, have a lot of kinectic energy tied up in that front wheel, and when this is combined with the laws of precession, it makes them very stable indeed, and large wheels make poor road surfaces easier to deal with.
The technique of mounting an Ordinary involves walking it at a brisk pace and then climbing on, occasionall two pegs that are affixed to the frame.
These tall cycels are differant altogether, with their relatively small wheels they would be nothing like as stable as an ordinary at low speed, particularly on mounting and would need a good deal more care and skill to get started.
I have seen one character who glories in the name of Mr Crump. He rides around in comic outfit, with stilts on, which are clad in pants and large boots on the feet.
Naturally the bicycle he rides requires a very large frame, it looks similar to this tall bicycle, except that the pedals are in the usual place, rather than high up as on this example.
Some people would say that taller bikes are easier to ride. Taller things fall down more slowly, so you have more time to react and correct for it. It’s the same reason it’s easeir to balance a broomstick upright on your hand than a pencil. A really low bike like the M5 Lowracer is less forgiving than a regular bike.
I had several of these bikes in my youth. About five years ago, I built my nephew one to ride. It looks like the one in the link you provided. They are easier to build than you think. I think the height generally comes closer to 6-7 feet at the top of the handle bars, but you can make them higher. They are also referred to as upside-down bikes, because that is basically what the vast majority of them are. You simply take the bike, turn it upside down. This raises the pedals. You also take the fork assembly of the front wheel, and turn all of that around too. You then take a couple of peices of pipe, weld one which will have your seat on it, and weld another pipe to your handle bars.
They way I always got upon it. was to place my left foot on one of the pedals. I reached to grab on to the handle bars; then, hopped with my other foot a couple of times to get the bike rolling; then jumped on. They are very easy to ride. To get off, simply slow down, lower one pedal, and use that as a step to get down. They are a lot of fun. I have many fond memories of mine.
JZ