Here are a few photos of the electric “Penny-farthing” bicycle that I designed and built. I call it the fixie of electric bicycles — no chain, no pedals, just awesome.
It all started last summer with the first prototype that I created during a weekend for testing the wireless control system for electric vehicles that I’m currently working on.
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- Second prototype
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- First prototype from the summer of 2014
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- Second prototype before the paint job
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- Me riding around Rīga with the second prototype
I didn’t realise it had no pedals.
Exactly. The idea is that you get onto a tram or bus to continue the journey if the battery does run out. Not having that whole mechanical drive saves a lot of weight.
Have you considered moving the riding position to a more traditional Penny farthing style? That’d put more of your body weight on the large wheel rather than little one. You wouldn’t have as much traction, but it would put less load through the drive axle and allow to weigh less (thereby giving better efficiency) and the rider would have a better ride since most of their weight would be on the giant wheel. It wouldn’t be as dangerous as those old school Penny farthings since the wheel could be much smaller.
If you needed more traction, you could just lean back a bit to load up the rear wheel more.
Those are excellent points, Ryan! I did try to move the seat post closer to the front wheel compared to the first prototype but apparently 10cm wasn’t enough since almost all the weight is still on the rear wheel :)
I have also realised that this vehicle is still a bit too bulky and heavy for what I would want to use daily so I’ll build another prototype with same size wheels and completely different design.
This Penny Bicycle looks awesome. Congratulations for your idea.