Riding high: Bike enthusiast develops electric Penny-farthing that travels up to 13mph



Fifteen seconds was all it took to snap everything into place.

One moment it lay folded neatly, the next - like a magic trick - it was ready for the road. A little lever here . . . a tug on the saddle there . . . a press on the button to start it.

That was the easy bit. Now, try to imagine you are sitting on a bar stool that suddenly takes off at 10mph.

The wind blows your hair and forces your face into a grin that resembles something between joy and terror. And then, gradually, the grin turns into a smug smile.



I have just become the first British journalist to road test the YikeBike, billed as a mini penny-farthing for the 21st century.



Easy ride: Paul Harris puts the YikeBike through its paces without ever breaking a sweat due to the electric motor

It might look like a collision between a praying mantis and a child's scooter, but it's the result of five years of work to reinvent the wheel, with one important addition: an electric motor.

It's a bicycle, but not as we have come to know it. For a start, you sit upright and steer with your hands at your side.

Your feet remain static on the folding footrests and your fingers work the controls, principally an accelerator and a brake.

The seating arrangement and dimensions mean you don't so much ride it as wear it. Crucially, you can fold it into a bag and carry the whole 22lb package anywhere.

True, it takes a little while to get used to riding it, especially if you've been raised on the kind of configuration that has so far proved perfectly adequate for everyone from Miss Marple to Sir Chris Hoy.

But there's one word which summarises the sensation of blatting along so quickly and so effortlessly on this rather clever piece of engineering: Yikes!



Convenience: The YikeBike can be folded into a bag and at 22lb is an easy package to carry around anywhere







Traditional cyclists move cautiously to one side as I approach. One of the Lycra brigade gives a snooty look as he whizzes past on his racing bike, but I can't help noticing he's sweating a lot.



I'm wearing a linen suit and I'm perfectly relaxed.

Meanwhile everyone - from children to City gents - stands and looks in wonder as I float by.

You can't really blame them. Viewed head on, it looks as if the rider is running without moving his legs.

Then they notice the noise. The 1.2 kilowatt motor sounds a little like a miniature milk float when you take off but changes to a satisfying, muted whoosh once it picks up.

Even though I've ridden motorcycles for decades, commuted on a bike, fallen off a circus unicycle, and once drove Sir Clive Sinclair's doomed C5 through the London rush hour, I couldn't recommend a novice to risk traffic on the YikeBike without appropriate tuition and practice.

Victorian design: People with their penny-farthing bicycles in London

So I have a question for inventor Grant Ryan and engineer Peter Higgins, in London from their native New Zealand prior to launching the YikeBike at the Eurobike trade fair in Germany today.

Why change a design which has been around since Victorian times and is preferred by an estimated billion cyclists around the world?

'We're not trying to compete with traditional bikes,' says Grant. 'We aimed to produce an electric bike that was portable, lightweight, compact, practical and fun.

'We wanted something you could ride to the bus stop in the morning, take to the office and charge up under your desk.

'The simplest choice would be a unicycle but they're really difficult to ride. So we went back to the future and came up with the penny farthing.

'The main difference is that the original penny-farthing was so tall, if you fell off from that height, you could die. The YikeBike is smaller, simpler, safer, faster and lighter.

'In all the time we've been teaching people to ride it, we've never had anyone hit the dirt.'