Early Tallbikes

In the days of the pennyfarthing, riding your bike six feet off the ground was considered quite 'Ordinary'. Men and women had gotten around at that height for centuries, first on horseback and then on carriages. It was making a short bike that was unusual, and so these were called 'dwarf safeties'. Originally it was the quest for speed that sent cyclists up into the air, as a larger wheel was the only way to increase the distance you traveled per pedal revolution. This page is dedicated to recording the history of bikes that are tall for height's sake, because face it it's damn fun and it gets attention. I'm trying to collect every picture I can find of tallbikes from the late 1800s until 1990 when the modern mutant bicycle culture began.

Most of these came from Victorian and Edwardian Cycling & Motoring From Old Photographs By A.B. Demaus or from the personal collections of The Wheelmen. Special thanks to Cigdem for her contributions.

When the safety was invented, the deadly pennyfarthings were frowned upon and even outlawed. (Lil Phil of the Wags has been prosecuted for tallbiking on ancient anti-pennyfarthing legislation in Minneapolis) But they'd come in quite handy for lighting gas lamps. Thus the invention of the lamplighter, the precursor to the modern tallbike.

Eventually people began to make taller bikes for exhibition, promotion, or festivals:

"Sedan kommer Eiffeltornscykeln; visserligen ej så hög som tornet ifråga, men dock allt för hög att åkas af andra än våghalsar. Sådana finnas dock i mängd, och derför kan man understundom i större städer få se personer åka på en sådan bicykel. Vi ha sett den här i Chicago, och som de måste gå saktaoch försigtigt och alltid väck uppmärksamhet, äro de goda skyltar och vanligtvis försedda med plakat, som annonserar någon slags vara -- oftast cigarrer, hvadan man kan antaga att det endast är förtjensten som lockar någon att åka på dem."





Paris tallbike plus an Ultimate Wheel.

Click on the picture below to see an astounding video of a 1915 'bunk bed' vertical tandem:



Now here's an old video of a bear riding a tallbike. And you think YOU'RE the shit. Bears aren't exactly the most agile of creatures, and they can do it...











special thanks to Greg for finding this for me













Check out more old-timey wacky bikes at A Speculative History of the Rat Patrol.