Your Bike Is Hiding a Giant Wheel

Riders of the old high-wheel bicycle went over the handlebars so often, handbooks taught them how to fall. With no chain, the pedals turned the front wheel directly, so the only way to go faster was a bigger wheel, as tall as a rider’s legs could reach. That put the rider almost on top of the axle: a stone or a hard brake could tip the whole machine over its front wheel. A chain to the back wheel fixed it. But the giant wheel never really left. Sources: Archibald Sharp, Bicycles & Tricycles (1896); Viscount Bury and G. Lacy Hillier, Cycling (1887); Sheldon Brown, “Gear Inches,” https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_g.html#gearinch #shorts #bicycle #pennyfarthing #engineering