i think that if you put a wire tension truss on the back of the frame it would make the contraption much stiffer. using the middle of the arch as a brace point and drawing tension from the seat and the wheel mount.
@@SamBarker i have a feeling, if you wanted to, you could invent a mechanical way to redistribute your COG in order to make it easier.....like a weighted flagpole type thing that orientates itself to keep your COG where it should be.
It can be done! I think they were using lighter lower powered motors here...not sure if those frames were more sturdy or not ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GJgHl_CaWE4.html
Admittedly getting around at all at the time was dangerous and they were in traffic with horses as well so people didn't have similar have such expectations as we would apply.
@@fionafiona1146 Let's say the the quality of street surface was worse, which is of course maybe not *great* for penny farthings. HOWEVER the streets were still around a billion fucking times safer. Because what kills and insures the most people in the streets are cars. Cars are heavy machine, that often weight well over 1 ton and they are way to fast then they have any right to be inside of a city. So dude, honestly, getting around back there was a lot safer, because the absolute biggest danger didn't exist yet.
Sudden stops on a penny-farthing were often fatal when the rear wheel lifted off the ground, the whole bike pivoted up and over the front axle and the rider face-planted onto the road from way up high. That’s why they wore little beanie hats with a tiny visor. Safety first.
There was an old German tractor that could "cough" it's single cylinder engine going uphill, and start reversing at full speed. The instinctive reaction was to slam the brakes on, which flipped it over on the driver.
Watching you all mess about on the packed streets with you full size and miniature penny farthings was the one thing I didn’t know I needed to see. That was amazing!
Absolute deathtrap lol, love it! Also love seeing people's reactions to the penny-farthing. What a weird contraption. Hope you smash that world record!
I think that the frame of the penny farthing is inherently unstable when powered by the rear wheel. The rear wheel is only there to stop you from falling off backwards like a unicycle. I think you should instead focus on applying electric power to the main wheel, probably with a small, electric, friction drive motor.
an alternative would be to shorten the spokes and just mount the motor in the front, together with a freewheel like they did for the small ones. However I don't know if adding a freewheel is a problem for Guinness
@@doktormerlin With a normal motor and ebike batttery, a light tap of the throttle is going to have you flying down the road above 60kmh due to the size of the wheel. It may be possible to get it to work using maybe 12 volts instead of 48, but good luck finding a controller that runs that low. Maybe a 24v system...? Or rewind the motor to have a much lower kV.
@@caseyb1346 I'm not so sure about this. The bigger wheel would also increase the torque, which should result in less RPM from the motor. However if that doesn't work you can find a motor controller with an analog throttle, on which you could add a resistor to the throttle wire. That would then limit the throttle range so even a full throttle would only result in 10% at the motor controller
it would just mean more tq to run the big wheel which would affect acceleration but the top speed should increase with the time it takes to reach the top speed.
Use high wattage geared ebike hub laced into the large wheel , geared should be better than direct drive as more low down torque to drive the very large wheel . Over volt the motor as well as your not running it for long for record attempt so heat wont be issue , don't think you would be able to enter wheel size into controller for speedo though . Should be stable as motor torque should transfer weight to rear wheel . Be scary ride but large wheel would give some stability and think geared hub should have the large amount of torque to drive large wheel also geared hub freewheels motor so less chance of nosing over on power off
I think the fundamental flaw with this design is using the drag wheel as a power wheel; it was never designed for that. Move the hub motor to the big wheel, and I think you'll be golden :)
That looks hilarious and dangerous - an entertaining combo! I also never joined the dots of you and Tom until this and recognising the road you both test on!
20k subs?! Geez, been a while since I've found a gem like this. I think it was Matt's Off Road & Recovery pre-100k subs. This was great, keep em coming!
Self-balancing electric unicycles exist. They use large hub motors like an e-bike can use, and riders typically stand on pedals instead of sitting. There are models with handlebars and seats, but those are generally inferior to the state-of-the-art models that are designed primarily for standing riders.
@@neurokinetik64ES Oh yes, I've seen the ones you stand on, I want to see a genuine unicycle with the seat.. fitted with a hub motor/wheel... with no kind of rider-assistance for control or balancing, just straight-up face-smashing fun.
The overall design surrounds the assumption that it's front wheel drive. Reinforcing the frame will only get you so far. What if you added a hub motor to the front wheel instead?
The failure to get over Cambridge's Garret Hostel Lane Bridge (better known by a different name) is so perfect. Astonished you made it across King's Parade without flattening any tourists!
I have the 'Reverse issue ' a lot , the programmable ones can do themselves but for PWM (BLDC) swapping Green and Yellow phase power has worked for me in the past, swap them both
Awesome video! I'd totally buy this for the name alone. My commute has some steep hills I'd like to try this on. It's pretty tough on a regular bike in the lowest gear.
Where did you get your Penny Farthing kit? I assume it's expensive but still interested. Also I love this video. Next up an electric tall bike? Or maybe even your own version of a enclosed tricycle e-bike. Something like the Elf. Edit: I got so many idea's now...
I love penny farthings so much that I am ecstatic when someone makes anything remotely related to the concept. I look forward to the record breaking process! Also is there a link or brand for the kits you used? They’re a super niche products so I imagine it was either difficult to find and/or expensive.
What about just attaching the motor to the penny wheel? It'd need more power on launch, yes, but the frame becomes irrelevant, plus it would drive like the original bike then, rather than being driven by a swinging rear wheel. The frame is inherently not designed to have the rear wheel powered, either electrically or by pedal, and there's really no way around this considering the exclusion sphere the front wheel has, the way the bike is mounted, etc.; front wheel drive really is the only realistic way of powering these, especially electrically. I also almost want to see a bike made with two penny wheels, just for the stupidity of it. A reverse penny-farthing (a farthing-penny?) would also be interesting, especially with a better seating position; solid mount the rear wheel and put the front on a fork, with a seat somewhere between, this could even be a proper seating position rather than a straddling position, possibly even a slightly reclined position like a recumbent bike depending on how far spread the wheel are, though steering then would probably work better with a hub center steering mechanism and levers rather than a central pivot.
@@CalmoOmlac Tell me where I said anything about, or even implied, putting pedals on a hub motor. Oh wait, I didn't, in fact the only mention of pedals I made was in comment that the frame doesn't support a powered farthing wheel, no matter how that wheel is powered. For all intents and purposes for projects pertaining to the penny-farthing, pedals aren't really needed in the first place, thus why there's no mention of pedals being used anywhere. I don't even know how you came up with the idea that I was talking about putting pedals on a hub motor. It's pretty obvious that if you're putting a hub motor on a wheel with pedals, the pedals would have to come off. Rather than point out the obvious and make moot arguments, work on your comprehension and communication skills, might as well work on logical thought while you're at it.
@@CalmoOmlac You chose such a stupid hill to die on. Let's look at the Wiktionary definition for bicycle: A vehicle that has two wheels, one behind the other, a steering handle, and a saddle seat or seats and is _usually_ propelled by the action of a rider’s feet upon pedals. Contextual keyword being _usually._ Do you understand why this definition uses that word? Because bikes, both modernly and historically, have had means of propulsion that aren't pedals. Let's look at the synonymous term of pushbike from the same source, from Oceanic English Vernacular: A pedal bicycle, as distinguished from a motorized bicycle. Let's look at some derived terms of bicycle from the same source: Autobicycle: (archaic) Motorcycle; Bicyclelike: Resembling or characteristic of a bicycle; Motorbicycle: (dated) Motorcycle; Balance bicycle: a bicycle with no pedals. There's also undefined terms, such as e-bikes or electric bicycle, of which uses a motor for propulsion, either independently or in a hybrid setup, of which neither is a motorcycle. Among other antiquated vernacular and undefined terms. Not to mention that the term motorcycle itself is a derivative of bicycle. As you can see, _bicycle_ doesn't necessarily mean a pedal bike. But this is also irrelevant considering the term of _penny-farthing_ of which the term only defines wheel arrangement and disproportionate size of the wheels. While what's shown here is a penny-farthing pedal bicycle converted to a penny-farthing hybrid motor-pedal bicycle, of which the pedals are mostly irrelevant, that doesn't mean that a penny-farthing non-hybrid motor-only e-bike cannot exist. This can even be extended to having a penny-farthing motorcycle if someone were to ever make one, or a penny-farthing cargo bike, etc. This could also be extended beyond just bikes, let's look at trikes and quads, nothing says you can't have a penny-farthing in either of those configurations, the only constraint is that the front wheels are larger than the rear wheel(s). Your argument is entirely incorrect and irrelevant. Stop equating the term penny-farthing to bicycle. Stop equating the term bicycle to pedal bikes or push bikes. Fact checking yourself for a minute or two would've saved you from looking like a twat, and this comes after making yourself look like a moronic cunt in your previous comment. How about you go educate yourself instead, as you're clearly lacking any education beyond primary school, go learn some words and etymologies, develop some basic comprehension and communication skills, develop some logical thought skills while you're at it; I'm becoming redundant at this point because you continue to make pointless arguments. But most importantly, stay out of intelligent conversation, as you're quite clearly unintelligent, and while you're at it piss off with your moronic shit. I can't tell if you're a child, an old cunt that can't keep up and feels the need to argue, just simply mentally deficient, or a combination of the latter and one of the two former; wouldn't be surprised if there's some behavioral issues at play as well, such as ego issues, probably superiority issues as well considering how you think you're intelligent and correct, etc. Either way, if you can't intelligently contribute to a conversation, don't inject your moronic shit into it. Get off the internet, touch some grass, teach yourself some things; it'll benefit you and everyone you interact with.
From Penny Farthings to chained bicycles it was only a few years. They had the tech just wasn't used to make chains that small. Penny Farthings came out in 1871, first rear chain driven bicycle in 1879 so it only took 9 years for tech to be made available for bicycles.
Some of that wobble is due to the change of rake you've induced on the front forks with the change in the rear wheel size, placement, and geometry. This is then exascerbated by the limp noodle frame
I'd try and get an e-bike hub for the main large wheel. Maybe have a chat with Andy Kirby who is on RU-vid and does e-bike conversions and kits to see what he can come up with.
Presumably you could 'just' fit an internal-geared hub to the front wheel of the small penny-farthing to give you the overdrive. Be a hell of a wheel-rebuilding operation though.
I wonder if you can make the big wheel peddles free wheel when using the rear electric motor. My thought would be using the hub off 2 bikes that have this desgin and adapting them so that once you peddle you apply friction to which moves the bike and when you stop the bike keeps rolling. I am pretty sure that is how the thing works. The main shaft idles the wheel and the sprocket only works in one direction. Pretty much if you can reverse one of them you can build the whole hub and then place the peddles on the sprocket to which would drive the machine. The flex is going to be tricky to fix as you really have no other point to stiffen it up.
I thought that the defining design feature of a penny farthing was not the oversized front wheel, or the pedals directly attached to it, but the fact that the handlebars are underneath your legs.
10:06 - you need two pairs of arms to reinforce the frame - on from the first wheel to the frame around 45-37 degrees, then tie the bottom forks into this to stop the wobble, or diminish it.
One rider passes another rider. Rider that gets passed, hears a distinctive noise. One that also has a scent. The passed rider says to the passerby, is that you farthing again! 🤣
The answer is to use a front wheel motor, they're spaced at 100mm which is likely what your Penny used for a rear wheel anyway. They also don't have a ghastly excess amount of axle or ugly freewheel threads, so they can look quite clean and tidy when done right, which makes it that little bit more stealth.
I feel it's worth pointing out that they did have the technology to make a freewheel hub. They just hadn't made them. The gearing mechanisms in a pocket watch are not that dissimilar and arguable just as complex. They also had chains back then as well. I'd argue that it just wouldn't have been cost effective / nobody thought of it.
The speed wobble may also be coming from the imbalanced pedals since they are not exactly axially symmetric. Not a problem at slow speeds but maybe noticeable at silly speeds
You should consider extending the wheelbase if you plan on having a stable ride at higher speeds. Might mean you add some extra pair of foot pegs to the frame.
