City of Davis

Highwheel History

The highwheeler came to dominate bicycling from its origin around 1870 to the beginning of the 1890's. The type evolved from earlier "velocipedes" which had more equally-sized wheels as on modern bikes, but on which the pedal cranks were affixed directly to the front wheel (as on children's tricycles).

The key to making faster velocipedes was found to be through enlarging the front pedal-driven wheel (resulting in a higher "gear") and reducing the size of the rear wheel to lower the bike's overall weight. Placing the rider almost directly over the front wheel was found to be a most efficient pedaling position. This riding position in combination with the large spoked wheel made for a much smoother ride than was possible on the old velocipedes—an important factor given the rough nature of the existing dirt, gravel and cobblestone roads.

The 1870 English "Ariel" was the first relatively light all-metal bicycle and the first to have wheels built with adjustable spokes. Other innovations pioneered by high wheeler builders include hollow forks and tangentially arranged spokes. Racing machines were built weighing under 24 pounds, a figure comparable to some of today's best bicycles.

The high wheeler's biggest disadvantage was poor stability. The center of gravity being almost directly over the front axle meant that encountering only a small obstruction on the roadway or a too-vigorous application of the brake (usually a "spoon" type pressing down on the top of the front solid-rubber tire) could easily pitch the rider head first from his lofty height onto the road. On descents, where the threat of a "header" was very real, daring cyclists would often drape their legs over the handlebar so that in a spill they would likely land on their feet rather than have their limbs trapped under the bar.

Despite this drawback, the high wheeler was the first practical human-powered wheeled vehicle. It brought mobility and an expanded range of travel to a large segment of the middle classes in Europe, England and the U.S. who previously couldn't afford to own or operate horses or carriages.

Epic adventures captured the Victorian imagination, and cyclists were not immune to the lure of the open road. Distance and speed records were constantly set and broken in the 1880's, culminating in Thomas Stevens' two-and-a-half year round-the-world trek begun in 1884 on his American-made Columbia. On the same trip Stevens was the first across the U.S. by bicycle. The design's popularity over its predecessors earned it the name of "ordinary" as it quickly became the most common two-wheeled vehicle of it's time.

The highwheeler's propensity to throw its rider was its demise. Various builders resorted to smaller wheeled bicycles with a chain-and-gear drive which retained the rider's position above the pedals. With proper gearing, this configuration allowed the same or even higher "gear" than was possible on the highwheeler where the cyclist's leg length was the limiting factor.

The 1888 adaptation of John Dunlop's newly invented pneumatic tire to these new "safety bicycles", as they came to be called, spelled the ordinary's doom. The ordinary's one last advantage--a comfortable "sprung" ride--was more than matched by the cushioning effect of inflatable tires. The "safety" came to dominate cycling in the 1890's, making the roads accessible to even more enthusiastic converts.

Alas, in a few short years the expanding network of good quality roads, the result of intense lobbying efforts by cyclists, saw a new competitor for space, the automobile. Ordinaries, which came to be called by the derisive term "penny-farthing" as safeties grew in popularity, had all but disappeared from public roads by the dawning of the Twentieth Century.

Many remaining highwheelers were collected during scrap metal drives during the Great War of 1914-18, making the few remaining machines valuable and highly desired collectibles today, as well as nostalgic reminders of bicycling's Golden Age.