Penny-Farthing

bicycles · history · wild rides

Huge front wheel. The penny-farthing had an enormous front wheel and a tiny back wheel, which sounds backwards but actually made sense. The bigger the front wheel, the farther you traveled with each turn, so you could go really fast.

Super speedy design. Because the large front wheel covered so much ground with every rotation, penny-farthing riders could zoom along faster than people on regular bicycles. This made them thrilling but also pretty dangerous to stop and steer.

Bumpy rubber tires. These bikes had solid rubber tires, not air-filled ones like modern bikes. The only thing that made the ride less painful was the saddle, so riders felt every single bump in the road.

Brave riders only. Getting on a penny-farthing required climbing way up high onto the saddle, and if you crashed, you would fly forward over that giant wheel. Only confident cyclists dared to ride them.

Named after coins. The bicycle got its funny name because the big front wheel looked like a British penny coin, while the tiny back wheel looked like a farthing, which was a much smaller coin worth a quarter of a penny.