This Canadian athlete broke this record on a track in Tasmania. This suggests that she had to travel to Tasmania to do this, but also ship her competition penny farthing. Its possibly too expensive for air freight, so she might have had to ship it ahead of time. This means that she would have been without her competition penny farthing for the days/weeks needed to ship it. Being the world record holder, I have to assume she has at least one other penny farthing she uses for training while her main one is out of reach.
So here she is owning at least two penny farthings, while you and I are sitting here like chumps owning zero. What are we doing with our lives?!
Is there a rule about crank length?
It looks like a longer crank would both bring down her cadence a bit and make the acceleration easier off the line no?
There’s probably diminishing returns on crank length and practical limits depending on how long your legs are, but IDK about specific rules.
For all the old timey bike haters out there:
I think I would like to see a penny farthing bike race.
Only if they play appropriate penny farthing music.
like the benny hill song?
Yes! That’d be perfect. Or something from the early 20th century player through a gramophone.
Imagine getting passed by a penny farthing…
I have an e-bike. I think it’s hilarious when I’m on the bike paths doing 20 mph and some MAMIL passes me. Her top speed is about 26 mph and yeah getting passed by a penny farthing would be even funnier.
Having very not read the article, does it mention the speed? Maybe all the effort is just getting the thing to move at all, and it only goes at roughly walking pace
Having very not read the article, does it mention the speed?
It does!
Is the speed a Fibonacci number?
Its not a secret. Its in the article.
Well go on then, don’t keep the not-secret a secret!
Oh, gotcha! Here’s the link to the article right here for you to get that number:
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/07/23/canada-Guinness-World-Records-penny-farthing/1911753284806/
LOOOOOL
This is well done. Sadly, the number is what’s needed, not the link 🤷
47 mph
Source: I made it up!
Seriously though, almost 26 mph.
This is wild. At least she was on a track, which minimized the chances of getting thrown violently forward in a sudden stop. I’ll stick with my safety bicycle, thanks.
I don’t imagine stopping too fast on a penny-farthing is much of an issue.
They are brakeless so its all about pedal resistance… with no mechanical advantage
She is a tank though; her leg muscles are massive I bet she has great control and can get it stopped no problem at reasonable speeds
Some of them had a “spoon brake” that was controlled from the handlebars. From what I can gather, it was a spoon-shaped piece of metal that applied friction to the wheel. Not a hydraulic disc, but more than just the legs. Her track bike probably didn’t have one, though.
That would make sense. Especially being that a penny-farthing is all of the worst things of fixed gear… made more difficult and dangerous
laughs in 50mph solowheel
