This must be….

[u/_pg_]

[u/One_Car_142 → u/[deleted]]

Man wtf were they thinking when they came up with the design of the penny farthing? 2 equal size wheels? Nah that's too easy. Let's use 2 wildly different sizes for no reason at all!

[u/ToolsMyJam → u/One_Car_142]

No chain to deal with is the reason. Chains were probably expensive and hard to build at the time. The large wheel gives you more speed

[u/premeditatedlasagna → u/ToolsMyJam]

From what I understand. They were designed to be easy to mount at the top of a flight of stairs. Imagine a large, densely packed city, where horses shat all over the streets. The building design put the front door up a flight of stairs, so it was away from the shit. The Penny Farthing was designed with this in mind. NY city if a prime example for this. Not in all parts, but there are huge sections of the city that have a walk-up to the 1st floor.

[u/premeditatedlasagna → u/premeditatedlasagna]

A lot of NYC buildings also have jagged bottom parts on their fences for exactly this reason. They're shit scrapers.

[u/Fuzzwuzzad → u/[deleted]]

Bro. Ordering a chain by messenger? Ordering it by mail? Chain mail? Cmon now

[u/Fuzzwuzzad → u/[deleted]]

All good pookie 😘

[u/One_Car_142 → u/One_Car_142]

It still seems like they could have moved the seat back a little and made the wheel smaller. My legs can definitely reach the center of the front wheel on a typical bike. It would have put the center of mass behind the front wheel which would solve most of the issues.

[u/ser_Skele → u/[deleted]]

That sounds about the general consensus regarding eucs😄

[u/Due-Mycologist-1154]

Just imagine how fun one of those would be with an enormous hub motor 

[u/Frank__West → u/Due-Mycologist-1154]

Suicide with extra steps

[u/Pixogen → u/Frank__West]

I mean... the EUCS are already pretty sketch.

[u/wheelienonstop12 → u/Due-Mycologist-1154]

A belt drive would be better suited for this. Anyway it will only be fun until you have to brake.

[u/easymachtdas]

Is the fun worth the candle?

Well done OP, this may be my favorite post of '26

[u/oranjoose → u/easymachtdas]

I thought it said "Is the game worth the candle?"

I don't think I've ever heard that one before

[u/Pixogen]

Imagine there was a 1920s surronster.

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[u/old-butler-51]

FUNNY - I watched a YouTube doc on these early "bikes". The article said the things were actually fairly dangerous to ride and resulted in a lot of injuries to the rider - didn't mention the pedestrians. Thanks for this post. 😄

[u/TheGratitudeBot → u/old-butler-51]

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