An Ordinary Penny-farthing Photo - a photo on Flickriver

            'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;...

(Start of MULGA BILL'S BICYCLE by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson. High-wheelers are often used in illustrated versions of this classic Australian comic ballad, but they had been replaced by 'safety' bicycles by the time the poem was published. Still, this is a shining new machine and in town...)

These early bicycles seem counter to the appealing notion that the best solutions to problems flow from maximal simplicity and elegance. The latter is an aesthetic judgement, but simplicity is hardly contestable compared to chain-driven diamond-framed bicycles.

This immaculate bike is chained up on the footpath in front of a pharmacy shop in one of the most famous streets in Melbourne's CBD. In a font that is stylish but modest in size, the gold lettering on the front fork proclaims the commercial relationship. Apart from the machine's own novelty (to me), what caught my eye was the anachronistic contrast between it and the parked motorbikes visible through the spokes. I took several shots, waiting for the pedestrians to be favourably arranged, but the bike coming up the road in this one was serendipitous. In their heyday, penny farthings would certainly have been ridden up the hill past this very spot.

Zooming in reveals that behind the lamppost behind the penny farthing front fork, a modern push bike cyclist was also on the road. It would have been nice to get that properly in view as well. 

This bike has 64 tangential spokes on the front wheel, but most of the illustrations of high-wheelers in my cycling books show the earlier radial layout.  I am not sure, but it seems likely that the stronger tangential lacing was introduced some time after the start but before the end of the brief reign of these bikes.

Back to aesthetics — is a circle a beautiful shape, and if so, can one be more beautiful than another? The large wheel strikes me as very elegant…

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Melbourne City Centre (show map)

Taken on: March 29, 2022

Tags:

Elegant

Bicycle

Penny-farthing

City

Urban

Melbourne

Victoria

Australia

Oddity

Streetscape

Red

Wheel

Collins Street

Bike

Pushbike

Vintage

Old

Spokes

Lacing

High-wheeler

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Camera: Apple iPhone 8 Plus, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, 6.6mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Apple iPhone 8 Plus
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	6.6mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	15.1
Show full info

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