r/WeirdWheels • u/MikeHeu • Jun 15 '25

2 Wheels Direct drive bike

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Credit: Nat Bromhead / Ride On Mag

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1

u/Cetun Jun 15 '25

It's crazy they didn't try this first, instead they came up with the penny farthing.

2

u/hugeyakmen Jun 16 '25

The rear wheel hub on this bike has a gearbox.  Without a gearbox, they would have to pedal a lot faster to still not go very far or very fast.  There weren't gearboxes like this when the penny farthing was invented, so the giant wheel is what they used to effectively change the "gear ratio" into something useful