Photo is courtesy of the National Cycle Museum in Wales
Why were early bikes designed with a giant front wheel?
The high wheeler/ordinary/penny-farthing was developed in the 1870s and had a huge front wheel, which allowed the bicycle to travel greater distances with each pedal stroke, and provided a smoother ride on shoddy roads.
Increased wheel diameter = faster speeds
In the 1870s when the high wheeler/penny-farthing was developed no drivetrain or rear wheel drive system existed.
The only way to propel the bicycle was by direct cranking of the front wheel, which resulted in the front wheel turning one full cycle per complete pedal rotation. This resulted in forward motion that was equal in distance to the circumference of the propulsion wheel.
The larger front wheel meant the bicycle traveled a further distance with each pedal stroke, because the increased wheel diameter moved the bicycle a larger distance per revolution.
The bone-shaker, which pre-dated the high wheel bicycle by a decade was the first bicycle to use pedals and cranks, which was attached to the front wheel. The simplest method of increasing the gear ratio in the boneshaker was by increasing the size of the front wheel, which yielded the high wheeler/penny-farthing.
The Boneshaker
Boneshaker - 1860s
The front-wheel started growing in size, from a 36 inches wheel up to 64 inches, with the limit of the size of the front wheel being that of the length of the riders’ legs. These bicycles could reach speeds of 20 mph.
How big was the average front wheel? The average size wheel in the 1880s was 52 inches.
How far did the bike go with each pedal cycle? About 15 feet per pedal revolution
larger diameter wheel allowed smoother ride
The elasticity of the long spokes from the big wheel helped reduce the jolting caused by riding the rough roads and the big wheel could also roll over rocks and potholes.
These bicycles predated asphalt, wooden blocks or smooth macadam roads and shared paths with horses and carts.
Were these high wheelers/penny-farthings safe?
No. The high wheelers were not for women, the non-athlete or the faint of heart during their heyday. Just getting on and off the bicycle was dangerous enough and once atop, the rider’s center-of-gravity was too high and forward for the machine to have stability.
Downhill riding technique - From the 1869 book, The Velocipede : Its Past, Its Present &Its future
Obstacles, poor riding conditions or sudden braking would often send riders flying face down into the dirt, which created a set of injurious pet names such as a cropper, imperial crowner or the infamous header.
A common downhill technique was riding with feet over the handlebars to help riders land on their feet in the event of a fall.
If you think going over the handlebars is rough today, imagine a header with the saddle 5 feet (1.5 m) above the ground and landing on a road that was shared with farm animals, horse carriages, and was made of bricks.
The bicycle that came after the high wheeler was called and marketed as the safety bicycle, which should give you a pretty good indication of just how dangerous the high wheel bicycle actually was.
first roads & bicycles
The first roads were developed for bicycles, as cycling exploded globally in popularity in the 1890s with the invention of the chain-driven safety bicycle.
The Safety Bicycle
The League of American Wheelmen was established in 1880;
“to promote the general interests of cycling; to ascertain, defend, and protect the rights of wheelmen; and to facilitate touring.”
The League of American Wheelmen also gave rise to the Good Roads Movement, which helped pave the way for the U.S. road system.
During this period cyclists were known as wheelmen and were seen as a nuisance since the general public was largely using horse-transport. Many cities banned high wheelers from being ridden on roads and in parks. As a result, cycling clubs were created and they advocated for cycling infrastructure and road access.
In 1892, the League of American Wheelman advocated a bill that would create a National Highway Commission but failed to pass. In 1893 the Office of Road Inquiry was created and became the leader of the Good Roads Movement. In the early part of the 20th century, the Automobile Club of America became the dominant voice in the Good Roads Movement, which hastened the rise of the automobile.
Interesting note: The first name for the bicycle was velocipede, which is a Greek and Latin mashup:
velox = fast
ped = feet
How did the high wheeler get the nickname penny-farthing?
“Penny Farthing’ has never been an official name for the big wheeled Bicycle and they are referred to today as the ‘Ordinary Bicycle’ or the ‘Ordinary’ or the ‘High Wheel Bicycle’ or the ‘High-Wheeler.”
Originally called bicycle, these bikes got new names in the early 1890s as the safety bikes became popular.
Today, penny-farthing is a common name for the high bicycle, yet this term was used years after the development and refers to the shape of two coins used in Great Britain, the penny and the farthing. The penny has a diameter 4 times larger than that of the farthing as this bicycle resembles a small farthing following a large penny.
Photo is courtesy of the National Cycle Museum in Wales
Scotford Lawrence, the Historical Advisor for the National Cycle Museum says that;
“As they (safety bicycle) came to dominate the cycling world by the early 1890’s, the tall machine rapidly became old-fashioned and obsolescent and the butt of jokes and derision. It became popularly known as the penny ‘farthing’.”
Photo is courtesy of the National Cycle Museum in Wales
Did women ride the high wheelers?
During the high wheeler era, circa the 1870s - 1880s the vast majority of women didn’t ride the high wheeler as most women found it near impossible to ride in their everyday clothing of corsets and full skirts.
The restrictive clothing posed an obstacle, however, the larger barrier was the prevailing attitudes of the day, as women weren’t even allowed to vote until 1920.
“The mere fact of riding a bicycle is not in itself sinful, and if it is the only means of reaching the church on a Sunday, it may be excusable”
During the latter part of the 19th-century, modifications to the high wheeler yielded a large tricycle, with two high-wheeler style back wheels and one small wheel.
The safety bicycle also was developed, which ended the penny-farthing era. The safety bicycle brought bicycles into the mainstream since it was a chain-driven rear wheeled bicycle with two normal size wheels, and all able-bodied persons were capable of riding them.
The wheelwomen of the era created alternative customers to wear while cycling, which included a shorter skirt and modified trousers, which was rather radical at the time. In 1896, Mary Ward published a pamphlet titled Bicycling for Ladies and said, “Riding the wheel, our own powers are revealed to us… You have conquered a new world, and exultingly you take possession of it.”
unicycle history
Blanche d’Antigny, one of the most famous courtesans of the Third Empire in France and she got to fame and a considerable fortune from being a circus performer. She was also the model for the heroine of ‘Nana’ by Émile Zola - Quote and photograph from Scotford Lawrence
Scotford Lawrence, from the National Cycle Museum in the United Kingdom, said this about the unicycle:
When they first attached pedals to the front wheel of a hobby horse in the 1860s, and the rider could finally lift both feet off the ground, it was believed that the skill of balancing was so severe a task that only circus performers and the like would be capable of mastering it.
So the newly invented velocipede found its way onto the stage and into the circus ring. In fact, it proved to be not that difficult after all and large numbers of machines were produced and ridden. Bit it still had something of the circus about it....
But the circus always has to go one better and so, even in the 1860s, they tried to ride on just one wheel – and the unicycle came into being.
From then on, as a curiosity, people have experimented, competed and ridden unicycles, and still do so today. There are attempts to say, ‘Look. I can ride a bigger diameter wheel than you can’.
-Scotford Lawrence - Historical Advisor - National Cycle Museum
It’s common to read online that the unicycle was a descendant of the high wheeler, as people removed the frame and tiny back wheel. However, the unicycle predates the high wheeler by at least a decade. Scotford Lawrence says,
“it is too simplistic to say that it (unicycle) was just an adaptation of the parts of an Ordinary.”
monocycle
Modern monocycle - NOT a unicycle
In 1869, several patents were granted for monocycles, which are quite distinct from unicycles. These one-wheelers had an 8-foot wheel and the rider rode inside the wheel, instead of atop.
Jesse is Director of Pedal Chile and lives in La Patagonia of Chile. Jesse has a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance and enjoys riding singletrack down the active volcano in Chile. Hobbies: MTBing, snowboarding, reading non-fiction books and scholarly articles.
Sources & References
B, J.F. and Bottomley, J.F. (1869). The Velocipede : its past, its present & its future. London: Simpkin, Marshall.
Glaskin, M. (2018). Cycling Science.
Lamont, M. (2009). Reinventing the Wheel: A Definitional Discussion of Bicycle Tourism. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 14(1), pp.5–23.
Minetti, A.E., Pinkerton, J. and Zamparo, P. (2001). From bipedalism to bicyclism: evolution in energetics and biomechanics of historic bicycles. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 268(1474), pp.1351–1360.
Reid, C. (2015). Roads were not built for cars : how cyclists were the first to push for good roads & became the pioneers of motoring. Washington: Island Press.
Smithsonian Institution. (2020). Wheeling on Riverside Drive.
Strange, L.S. (2002). The Bicycle, Women s Rights, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Women’s Studies, 31(5), pp.609–626.