Say hello to Verity Treacle

[andygates]

Good gods, you're thinking, has he actually finished one of his crackpot projects.  Well, sort of.  Not so much finished as started with style.

This was a quick-and-dirty job.  Scrapheap Challenge style, so everything ground by hand, lined up by eye, tacked, adjusted with a lump hammer and then welded very badly (burn through? in spades, baby).  Regular pennyfarthings are elegant.  If they're Halle Berry, this is Verity Treacle.

But does it ride?  Well, the first saddle clamp fell off, so a quick bodge with a pair of jubilee clips meant that the pristine Brooks was secure.  We added some lamps, because every skip tallbike needs luxeon lamps on its inaugural proving ride.  Just like Scrapheap, it had mysteriously got dark.

Ready to go:



And then after a lot of scooting around the town square, and some nerve-raising, and basic dread and fear (it's not certain death I fear, it's likely pain), the first ride!



Judo flip!  Straight onto the gravel! 

It turns out the seating position is such that knees hit handlebars - so not only is it front-wheel steer and front-wheel drive, it's also front-wheel nudge-thud-argh.  Behold naughty knees:



Time to change the control surfaces.  Might fit a taller bar, or might go the other way and fit a fixed bar to the frame and just body-steer it.  But from the scooting, the frame is stable and the high position is surprisingly ... refined.  Horsey.  Definitely worth more work.

My amanuensis de jour was better at posing with Verity than riding her:

Comments

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

That's splendid.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Don't look too closely at the welds ;)

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

Pah. It held up to being sat on, so it's welded.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

My thinking exactly. Belt it with a lump hammer and if it's still there, it's good to go.

Precision engineering? Muahaha!

[gedhrel.livejournal.com]

That looks fucking terrific. Ruth's comment: "He's insane!"

[andygates.livejournal.com]

She's the one up a rope!

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

OMG!

[skean.livejournal.com]

Woah, dude. Schwing!

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I'm not doing a tri on it, before you ask.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I'd offer congratulations, but frankly it's an abomination.

The face you're pulling in the third picture is utterly priceless, however.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Abomination? How dare you! Though compared to the fine ride in your avatar I can see why you might think that. Tell you what though: sketching in metal is bloody good fun.

I'd like to see *your* face seconds before a bail. When you're expecting the yoke or spine welds to fail in a nad-coring manner AND to fall off from epic height AND your knee hits the bars... I think I looked pretty composed thankyouverymuch!

Okay, and like Grandfather Ewok. Must cut hair!

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see *your* face seconds before a bail. When you're expecting the yoke or spine welds to fail in a nad-coring manner AND to fall off from epic height AND your knee hits the bars...

Thing is, dear heart, I wouldn't be riding it in the first place, and that is nothing to do with lack of balls. I simply have more sense. And less motivation.

I'm informed that my face immediately before a bail is usually one of intense concentration and determination. This is generally because my brain has come up with some half-baked plan to escape certain doom (which inevitably fails but seems entirely sensible at the time) and is hell-bent on carrying it out.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Hey, for me, that *was* concentration and determination. :)

[jonnycowbells.livejournal.com]

It looks a bit like an episode of Spaced that never was. Does Verity have rocket launchers?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Not yet, my friend, not yet. The addition of fire toys is however mandated under Section 13 of the Tallbike Code.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Hang on a minute, Chuffy's going to be the one who gets played by Simon Pegg in that. Oi!

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Yes. Oh yes indeedy.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

That makes me Mike.

You utter, utter bastards!

[jonnycowbells.livejournal.com]

Not without a beany. Timmy - fetch me my tools.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Beany was worn all day :(

[(Anonymous)]

Wow Activation Energy achieved!!!

Well Done! And it "Works"!
"No Andy's were slain in the making of this picture" (just lightly mauled)


Questions.
Do you find any difference in Center of Gravity from a large wheel PF? since you're just as high but don't have the mass/curviture of the larger wheel.
Same question but for steering, does the smaller wheel give a smaller tangent/preservation of rotational-momentum.
Final one, compared to the large wheel PF, does the small wheel PF go "into" holes/bumps that a large wheel PF would ride over?

So again well done. A complete to working is the creation of reality, never a small task! Make it open the way for many more successes.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Well, it sorta works. Works better now I've cleared space for the knees. But I've never ridden a real penny so I've no idea how they compare!

Hypothetically, the CoG is probably about the same, as the wheel's CoG is at the axle. Scooting along hanging on the side, it's stable - that's a factor of the height (the period of a pendulum being to the root of its length). I think this is sneaky tallbike / stilt seekrit knowledge, you know: once you're up, it's more stable than it looks.

Steering will be twitchier, I expect, for the reason you give.

I haven't ridden it enough - at all really - to assess it's hole-handling, but it has a fat pneumatic tyre where real pennies have a skinny solid one. We know pneumatics, they're good and they totally took over.

I still want a real one.