pennyfakething.com

Winifred

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:45:00 +0000

Winifred was based on what I'd learned from the horrid Pickup Styx. The beach cruiser is single-speed and much more comfy of a ride. The curved lines and armature look more authentic. And most importantly the handlebars are underneath, making the bike far more safe. It turns out you don't need your hands at all! I could sip tea riding this thing, and it's taken me hundreds of miles in Chicago, New York, and Black Rock City.

Here's a video of the mount:

Winifred got her name when a hipster said to me, "You win. You win the game of bike."

Klaas

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Klaas of the club Klunker League Now Ghent Belgium is a master bicycle mutator. Here's his pennyfakething:

Prekarious Et Best

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:32:00 +0000

This pennyfakething was made by a Rat named Eric. He gave it away and it surfaced again at Bike Kill one year. It rides like you'd imagine.

Tongue of Fire's "Two Dollar Deal"

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:52:00 +0000

This one is made by the South Australian club Tongue of Fire.

Not Quite Ordinaries

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:29:00 +0000

Another way to simulate an Ordinary is to bodge up a big wheel. The Scallywags did this around 2002, thinking they would be a pennyfarthing gang. One boneshaking ride on the thing and they started making tallbikes instead.

I call these "Not Quite Ordinaries" because they are attempts to recreate the actual Ordinary construction. The middle one is Mike Phippen's, who inspired my first pennyfakething. The last one was a kid who came to Bike Kill.

See more here.

Here's a member of Rat Patrol Russia with yet another take on the pennyfarthing:

Three-penny farthing

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:53:00 +0000

In 2002, a Canadian named Paul Neugebauer built this "Three-Penny Farthing" using a unicycle wheel:

Inspired by his design, Tongue of Fire of Adelaide, South Australia made one too:

Pickup Styx- the first pennyfakething

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:45:00 +0000

While riding with recreationists in Critical Mass in 2003, I often wished I could make a pennyfarthing. The problem is just where to get a large, fixed wheel- otherwise the bike is very simple to construct. I researched making your own unicycle wheel, figuring I'd just make it larger. I found lots of tales of horror about trying to drill through axles.

Then I saw a picture from Marin County of an odd reverse chopper. The maker had tilted a frame upwards, reversed the bottom bracket, and mounted a seat on the extended fork! The result looked like a chopper that rode backwards. This gave me the idea that I could cheat and skip the big wheel if I just flipped a frame upwards. This was the result:

The bike was deadly. A small bump or slight grade and you'd crash forward, catching your legs on the handlebars. The terror of riding it set me on the path of developing a pleasant, retrofuturistic faux ordinary.

BLBC

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:31:00 +0000

The Black Label Bike Club of Brooklyn coined the term "pennyfakething" and has a few varieties:

The first two aren't quite the "pennyfakething" design but were made right before I made mine.

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:32:00 +0000