A curious spectacle has been observed on local streets in recent weeks: a man riding a bicycle with two wildly mismatched wheels — one more than four feet in diameter and the other much, much smaller.
That contraption, it turns out, is a “penny-farthing,” and the man atop it is local resident Chuck Cates.
If it looks a bit old-timey, that’s because it is: penny-farthings largely fell out of fashion by the late 1800s.
The name comes from two British coins — the penny and the farthing, which was a much smaller coin worth one quarter of a penny.
Cates rode another penny-farthing around Bentonville about seven years ago, before eventually getting rid of it. He’s had this new one for just a few weeks.
The odd bicycle prompts questions from nearly everyone who sees it. The Bentonville Bulletin asked a few of them on your behalf.
First question: How do you get on it?
On the left side is a welded piece of pipe, about three and a half to four inches wide, that serves as a step.
You stand behind it on the ground, and your left foot goes on the step.
And then with your right foot, you kind of give it a skip, skip, skip motion and get the momentum going, and then you just stand up on the pedal and sit down on the saddle.
But getting off is much harder than getting onto it.
What inspired you to hop up on one of these things?
My last year in college, which was 1986, I started racing bikes.
I lived in Atlanta, and the owner of the bike shop that I went to owned a penny-farthing, and I was always just mesmerized by it. I thought it was the neatest thing ever.
Racing bikes is so serious. I mean, it is like any competitive sport. It can be overly competitive. And this was just a really nice segue out of the competitive aspect of it.
It is very pleasant and very slow and very deliberate and very non-competitive in every aspect. And it's just peaceful. It's a nice mix for me, between racing bikes and the penny-farthing. And I love the history of bikes.
No, I had another one. So there's a guy out in Alameda, California, who hand makes them.
His father handmade them before he passed away, and so the son took over the business, and now he makes them.
He made my first one, which I bought about seven years ago. I got rid of it, thinking I wouldn't miss it that much. But I was really wrong. I've missed it a lot.
So I called him back a couple of weeks ago. I've had it for coming up on three weeks now.
What exactly is it that you like about riding?
When I bought my first one, COVID had just started and everyone was social distancing. There were so many things going on globally that made the world feel like a pretty dark place, and I happened to buy the bike around the same time. It brought out so many smiles everywhere I rode.
I can't ride for more than three minutes before I see people taking pictures or videoing or honking their horn and smiling, giving me thumbs up. Never, ever anything negative at all, never.
And of course, I try to be extremely gracious. I don't want it to be an attention-seeking thing, it's more about making people smile. It does bring so many double takes and children like to squeeze the big brass horn bulb.
Do you think if we all just got these penny-farthings that the world would be a better place?
I would love that. From a very selfish aspect, I would love for there to be a penny-farthers club, or, you know, a group of us doing it. There are bigger cities that have groups of penny-farthing riders.
But as far as I know, only myself and the guy who owns Pedaler's Pub have one. It was just kind of coincidental that we both have a penny-farthing. He actually bought his from the same guy who made mine.
Interesting. It's kind of a lonely club for the two of you, huh?
It is. It is. But I guess I kind of dodged your question a little bit. I didn't mean to, but I do think there's something very, very peaceful about riding it.
It just kind of rolls. It's not jittery or twitchy. It doesn't feel rushed. It kind of puts you in a mood of just peace, at least it does for me, and I love that feeling.
And I do think the world would be a better place if there were more penny-farthings.
There might be more injured people. Because it is so front-loaded, it's very easy to get yourself into a bad situation where you'll go over the handlebars if you don't control your center of gravity.
Just be aware if you take a dip in the road, you kind of have to anticipate the dip coming, to know to adjust your body weight back on the saddle, so that you don't go over the handlebars or get your momentum going that way.
Gotcha. Gotcha. People have probably asked you this, but do you let other people ride it?
It would have to be a really, really close friend. Otherwise, I would need to have a liability waiver signed and say, I'm not responsible for you injuring yourself. No one has ridden this one yet. Again, it's still pretty new to me.
