It's nice, but I wouldn't want to have to change a flat

Michael adds "This is from a digitized journal "Cycling Life" with issues for 1896-1897. From the Library of Congress. It was a journal intended not for purchasers of bikes but for the "bicycle trade" and for that I think is more interesting in some ways. Mostly what I note is how little some things have changed or in some cases, how things that one sees presented as now today were actually explored more than 100 years ago."

More here. One interesting part is that it takes 8 men to propel it and that with them it adds 1120 lbs. Meaning that each man weighs an average of 140 lbs.

Comments

[Christopher Fotos]

I've been waiting for an excuse to excerpt something from a Wikipedia entry on Segregated Bicycle Facilities and it's a stretch but this and your Copenhagen bike highway post will have to do:

An example of an early segregated cycle facility was the nine-mile dedicated Cycle-Way built in 1897 to connect Pasadena, California to Los Angeles. Its right of way followed the stream bed of the Arroyo Seco and required 1,250,000 board feet (2,950 m3) of pine to construct. The roundtrip toll was 15¢ US and it was lit with electric lights along its entire length. The route did not succeed, and the right of way later became the route for the Arroyo Seco Parkway, an automobile freeway opened in 1940.

The footnote to that entry points to a story from 1901 about "California's Great Cycle-Way."

And from the Dept. of Some Things Never Change: In Germany, concerns arose regarding conflicts between cyclists, horse traffic and pedestrians, leading to sections of routes being upgraded to provide smoother surfaces and separate portions for the different groups.

[SJE]

If someone brought one of these monsters to DC, I would be happy to be one of the 8 peddling! A bike bigger than most cars would put a very different spin on the bike/car dynamic.

[washcycle]

Christopher, I think that California cycle-way came up a few years ago. They were either going to close the Parkway to cars for one day, or some group wanted them to.

[Michael H.]

Here's a website describing a modern penny-farthing that some guy or guys put together in the Netherlands:

Monsterbike

[microzen]

It's like a Conference Bike!

[Jack]

Heck with share the road. Cars, get out of my way.