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: