SID 25 A Penny Farthing Diversion

Sometime last year I sent a card to a friend in New Zealand. He is an engineer and a cyclist and he and his wife both have electric bikes. During Art Deco Weekend in Napier one usually sees some penny farthing bikes being ridden. So the card I sent had this picture with a challenge to electrify a penny farthing. Over the next four ot five exchanges of letters I received his suggestions.

This morning I woke to a golden orb shining out of a bright blue sky. "What happened to the horrible weather forecast?" I thought. Ah well. Two hours later at 9 o'clock there wasn't even a hill opposite to be seen through the rain and mist. It's blowing a hoolie too. C'est la vie.

Anyway to provide a little light relief I decided to share the modified penny farthings with you. I, for one, won't be in the garden today.

Personal Transportation: My First Bike

When I passed the 11+ in 1955, my parents bought me a Triumph Palm Beach bike (bicycle frame number 71512TH) with Sturmey Archer 3-speed gears and Dynohub lights. It was the bees knees. I cycled the (almost) three miles to and from school in all weathers on it until I left school. The most miles I did on it in one day was to North Wales and back. I clocked on the little clicking mileometer 98.4 miles. I can always remember the figure because it is the 'normal' Fahrenheit temperature of the human body. When I arrived home I only had to ride around the block to make it 100 miles but I was just too tired. 

I've been trying to find one of my own photos of the bike but I've not yet been successful. So here are two from Google. The first shows the Dynohub on the front wheel but not the saddlebag nor the white-sidewalled tyres which were standard on the new one. The second picture shows the latter two but not the Dynohub.

What was your first 'proper' form of personal transportation?