Fargo Street bicycle challenge

Quote: Wizard

What is an "Ordinary"?

It's a type of bicycle.

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The kind with a HUGE wheel in the front and tiny one trailing behind. They were very popular in the 1880s.

A penny farthing, as they used to say old country.

Quote: TheCesspit

A penny farthing, as they used to say old country.

That was a trivia question in a recent WoV challenge. I call them a pennyfarthing too.

I have never rode one, but I think they would not exercise the non-leg muscles the way a unicycle does.

Quote: Wizard

I have never rode one, but I think they would not exercise the non-leg muscles the way a unicycle does.

I didn't realize the point of tackling a steep street was exercise.

Quote: Wizard

That was a trivia question in a recent WoV challenge. I call them a pennyfarthing too.

I have never rode one, but I think they would not exercise the non-leg muscles the way a unicycle does.

If there ever was a thing with two wheels that would not make to the top of Fargo St., the high wheeler has to be it.

But perhaps I type too soon:

There are folks who ride them in bike races in the Rocky Mountains


They take them off road too

photos from rmhwonline.com

Quote: Wizard

What is an "Ordinary"?

When bicycles with gears were developed near the end of the 19th century, they were referred to as "safety bicycles". The old fashioned kind with the big wheel's were then called "ordinary bicycles".

The phrase "Penny farthing" (PF) bicycle was sort of a nickname which started to be used for "ordinary bicycles" just as they were vanishing from common use. After they became very rare, it seemed silly to call them "ordinary" so PF is the name that stuck over the next century plus.

Perhaps Nareed is engrossed in period literature.

Quote: Wizard

We saw the Unigeezer go straight up it. He also did it on a 29" unicycle but may have zig-zagged. However, you do make it sound daunting about the two feet of elevation gain per revolution.

Unigeezer calls it "traversing" instead of zigzagging. He specifically says he traversed in 2014 as he was going to try to make 4 climbs. He does say that the turns on the traverse on the steep hill have their own difficulty as it is hard to keep your balance.

In his original video done in 2011 for his first climb, he only went straight up at the beginning. Then he traversedd the rest of the way. I counted his revolutions at 130 before his friends yelled that "he did it". He went an additional 7 revolutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNUPefIVxv4

I used the 130 revolutions to calculate his average rate of climb at around 18%. That's why i suggested that going straight up a 15% hill might be reasonable training for traversing up Fargo street. Emphasize "reasonable training" and not "matching in difficulty".

Now, TP may have gotten much better since 2011. Clearly if he did it on a 29" unicycle he is much stronger.

I looked at the 2014 video and he did the 24" wheel climb in slightly over 130 revolutions (the video sped up at the end). Using the 29" wheel he did it in about 113 revolutions. So that is 817' compared to 858'. He did seem to be more methodical with his traverses using the 29" unicycle.

At some point if you do enough traverses, the climb will be even harder. If you end up having to do 200 revolutions you may get so tired that you fall on one of the turns.

Quote: Wizard

We saw the Unigeezer go straight up it. However, you do make it sound daunting about the two feet of elevation gain per revolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf0A4UqSjyo

I'm sorry, I didn't see this video earlier. It looks like I was wrong, he did do the hill "straight up". I see only 57 revolutions or 358', but that may have just been editing on the part of the videographer. From the software, I thought the hill climbed 153' in elevation.

The reason they call it a penny farthing is because the two wheels resemble a penny and a farthing in their size relationship.

When I did the Lee Canyon challenge I had to traverse at the end but it was in the ski area parking lot so had plenty of room. Fargo street will present a challenge in traversing because it is so narrow and will require a lot of turns, which will not be easy at an extreme slope.

At this point I'm trusting the advice Terry gave me. I plan to bring along my 20" unicycle and a crank extractor as a backup plan. I'm thinking about going to LA the August 8-9 weekend and if so I'll at least give it a test run.

Quote: Wizard

I plan to bring along my 20" unicycle and a crank extractor as a backup plan. I'm thinking about going to LA the August 8-9 weekend and if so I'll at least give it a test run.

As a coincidence 32.00% is very close to 1/PI= 31.83% . So a 24" radius wheel is like taking two steps, 12" apiece, and a 20" diameter wheel is like taking two steps 10" apiece. If you had a 16" diameter wheel you would be close to normal stairs rise. Of course you don't have to balance yourself when you are climbing stairs.


This pyramid of Nohoch Mul at Coba is still open to the public to climb. It is 138' tall with 120 stairs (14" per stair). As you can see most of the people are terrified and are using a rope to climb the pyramid and are coming down on their bum.

Quote: Pacomartin

Perhaps Nareed is engrossed in period literature.

I've yet to read a novel with written or set in the Victorian era that doesn't try my patience to the utmost.

No. I've been taking lecture series on American history and the Industrial Revolution lately. The first true interchangeable parts were developed for bicycles, of all things. Which means there is at least one positive contribution from the death-trap industry to urban life.

Quote: Nareed

Which means there is at least one positive contribution from the death-trap industry to urban life.

I was wondering, because to call a penny farthing bike "ordinary" is a very anachronistic name.

Speaking of death traps, there is a movement to bring back bicycles where you can't change gears (slang is "fixie" for "fixed gear"). Instead of a big wheel in front, you have two wheels of the same size, but the gears change spin rates so it is equivalent to having one big wheel in the front. But you can't change gears for hills.

The advantage of a fixie is that it is low maintenance and very stable. Circus performers usually are standing on a fixie. Some riders even remove the brakes so that nothing interferes with the tires.

These cycles were glamorized in the film Premium Rush, which was a decent flick.