Penny Farthing type wheel info
- Thread starter DIABLO67
- Start date
Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:
Penny Farthings were fixed drive as far as I know, with bearings mounted on the end of the forks that the cranks went through, if you want a freewheel option the front wheel of a "Green Machine" or slider trike is centre pedal drive but with a built in hub freewheel, would not take much to lace the hub to a bigger wheel than the standard 20 inch either. Modifying the forks with the bearing mounts to fit the bigger wheel should be easy too...
Luke.
Luke.
You could study a bunch of pictures.The frame pivots on and follows the front wheel.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/i ... r2=piv-web
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/i ... r2=piv-web
Unicycles are more or less the front end of a Penny farthing.
The bearing holders sometimes are like a Rod end bearing, that goes in the open end of the round fork legs. Other designs are like the green machine, half the clamp is the end of the fork leg, with a cap bolted on it, to hold the wheel bearing unit, and so the axle and wheel.
Most of those Unicycles will have a round fork leg at some point. So it would be easy to mod it. Cut the Unicycle fork and sleeve and weld it to a BMX fork. So you have the steerer tube to go into the head tube, that will be on the rear curved frame.
I managed to buy a brand new unicycle from a bike shop on ebay for under £10, brand new. Wasnt very good at riding it tho. I have also seen them for sale cheaply, at a supermarket. So there in the right price range for being a donor
I would recommend that you get the largest wheel rim you can, laced onto the hub. For instance, a 700c hybrid rim. As its direct drive, so your effectively in what would be first gear on a Mountain bike. very slow and tiring.
The bearing holders sometimes are like a Rod end bearing, that goes in the open end of the round fork legs. Other designs are like the green machine, half the clamp is the end of the fork leg, with a cap bolted on it, to hold the wheel bearing unit, and so the axle and wheel.
Most of those Unicycles will have a round fork leg at some point. So it would be easy to mod it. Cut the Unicycle fork and sleeve and weld it to a BMX fork. So you have the steerer tube to go into the head tube, that will be on the rear curved frame.
I managed to buy a brand new unicycle from a bike shop on ebay for under £10, brand new. Wasnt very good at riding it tho. I have also seen them for sale cheaply, at a supermarket. So there in the right price range for being a donor
I would recommend that you get the largest wheel rim you can, laced onto the hub. For instance, a 700c hybrid rim. As its direct drive, so your effectively in what would be first gear on a Mountain bike. very slow and tiring.
Thanks Alec, I've been thinking about getting some bearings at the local hardware store and using a front fork from a mountain bike. I figure that if I use a shock on the front that will reduce the "bone shaker" effect on the bike. I know it's going to be a slow poke, but I'm not looking to do the tour de France with it. Just a nice cruiser that looks pretty cool. Might even throw some apehangers on it for good measure. Thanks again for the advice!
Roly...
Roly...
There were two Instructable articles about making Penny Fart things. One guy cut two 26" wheels, took the curve out, welded them together and made new spokes out of rod. The second one used square U channel. Both used solid rubber tube for the tires. If I find them, I'll post them
There is a guy here in San Diego with a bunch of penny farthings. He has one made out of carbon fiber that uses a Coker 36" unicycle wheel setup.
Here is another idea but you'd have to rearrange the layout.
http://youtu.be/l_MirZAe4to
Here is another idea but you'd have to rearrange the layout.
http://youtu.be/l_MirZAe4to
