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Monsterbike: the modern-day penny farthing?

May 30, 2010

Monsterbike: you won't even hear the screams of the taxi drivers that cut you off

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Ask people why they ride their bicycles to work and they'll tell you it's because they enjoy the physical exercise, the exertion, a morning workout that gets them awake and feeling sharp for their 9am meeting. Why, then, would you spend 10 grand on a bicycle that makes cycling easier and less strenuous, giving you less exercise per mile? We reckon this guy has the right idea - he's built a modern day penny farthing called the Monsterbike using a massive monster truck tyre as the front wheel. Sure, it seems to have a top speed just above walking pace, and it looks like a heck of an effort to ride - but the exercise factor is huge, and you'll never feel intimidated in traffic again!

About the Author

Loz loves motorcycles - at the age of two, he told his mother "don't want brother, want mogabike." It was the biker connection that first brought Loz to Gizmag, but since then he's covered everything from alternative energy and weapons to medicine, marital aids - and of course, motorcycles. Loz also produces a number of video pieces for Gizmag, including his beloved bike reviews. He frequently disappears for weeks at a time to go touring with his vocal band Suade. All articles by Loz Blain

10 Comments

The guy on the bike that rides by does not even look back!

Druid
31st May, 2010 @ 10:12 am PDT

Needs to raise his seatpost!

Druid
31st May, 2010 @ 10:14 am PDT

Judging from the picture, this isn't a bicycle, it's a tricycle. And presumably it's foxed by any kind of uphill gradient, imaginative but flawed.

PeetEngineer
31st May, 2010 @ 02:34 pm PDT

On a dead flat road - that could be great fun.

But - the common "diamond frame" bicycle was initially called "The Safety Bicycle" on account of the number of penny farthing riders who broke their necks and or suffered serious injury - head height - 9 feet up, speed face plant = fatal.

But the mass and inertial of this front wheel - at the mere prospect of blundering into a gradient of significance, I'd be bailing out, and trying to aim it at a solid object to stop it's self on - because I'd be frightened to death of being on it, and it being so dangerous to rider and all, when out of control - which would occur so easily down said hill.

Mr Stiffy
31st May, 2010 @ 06:36 pm PDT

Looks like Holland. Gradients aren't a problem there XD

felix
1st June, 2010 @ 04:29 am PDT

Just brilliant!!!

The guy should win a Nobel prize for "Whimsy"

Steve Braithwaite
1st June, 2010 @ 06:58 am PDT

" on account of the number of penny farthing riders who broke their necks and or suffered serious injury - head height - 9 feet up, speed face plant = fatal"

Wrong. You have clearly not seen Jackass 2 in which Johnny Knoxville does that exact thing and comes out of the experience with nothing more than a headache LoL

Kirby Mad-Hatter Christopher
2nd June, 2010 @ 02:18 pm PDT

A pogo stick is a flawed form of transport too but bloody good fun :)

Top work chaps!!!

Craig Jennings
5th June, 2010 @ 11:05 pm PDT

@felix: yup, it's Holland... at the end, the guy says "uhhhh, ik kan niet meer" which translates to "uhhhhh, I'm finished". This little ride drained him!

BoilingOil
16th June, 2010 @ 04:04 am PDT

Wow!

A people-powered monster thing!

Looks like the guy came up with an alternative to the 50-yard-per-gallon refrigerator shooting monster machine while we were quibbling over comments...

More power to him-

at least he's doing something without fuel while everybody else is arguing about it or generating computer fantasies.

He probably built this for next to nothing on his spare time with just a piece of chalk on some steel,

starting out as a challenge between friends...

but it rolls!

Art and passion will do something while committees of engineers are still arguing about it.

Hey man,

if you're listening,

build your version of a high-speed,high fuel mileage trike.

Show us what else you've got in mind!

Peace,

-g