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.

[gedhrel.livejournal.com]

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

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

OMG!

[skean.livejournal.com]

Woah, dude. Schwing!

[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.

[jonnycowbells.livejournal.com]

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

[(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.