I Built The World's Weirdest Tandem Bike And Rode It

This is the Siamese Penny Farthing. It is huge and it is identical on both sides. You can steer up here, you can pedal. Here's a seat, here's a seat, and they're both facing in opposite directions. Can we even ride it? That's what we're going to figure out today. First of all, what even is this? Well, if you've ever seen those old-timey bikes, a penny farthing, a high wheel, like with the big wheel and the guys with the mustaches, this is that, but it's two of them welded back to back. I know it sounds silly, but not only do I think that we can ride it, I think we can ride it five different ways. I don't think any of these, not even one. First of all, one person just trying to ride it, I think that might be the most challenging. One. Second, two people riding it. How would you even do that? Well, there's a pilot that's going to go forwards and then there's a co-pilot is going to hold their arms dead straight so that the wheel doesn't move and pedal backwards. And it should work, right? So check it out. Both riders steer in opposite directions, super tight turns, rear steering. Challenge number four, pilot, co-pilot, right? So we're riding this way. Stop. Co-pilot starts pedaling forwards, pilot starts pedaling backwards. So co-pilot, pilot, swap. I got another one for you. Crab walk. You turn the wheels like this. Now the bike goes off to the side. So if we can do all five of these things, I even have some bonus challenges that I'm not even going to give away. I'm Seth from Berm Peak. I've ridden unicycles, tall bicycles, backwards bicycles, and everything in between. I've never ridden a Siamese penny farthing. Let's see if I can just ride it. Just like a penny farthing, you put your foot on the peg and you scoot along and you just start riding. How about this? No, that's not going to help, but let's try it anyway. The fork has a slant to it and so that's what's providing the offset. All I can say is I told you, you got to try it. It's the most comfortable bike in the world. Be known, I've never ridden a penny farthing at all. A normal. I'll keep it stable until you get going. So I can get on, but the second I turn even just the slightest, the back just starts shooting up. Things getting wiggly behind you and you know exactly what's happening and then it gets worse, worse, worse, worse. Okay, I thought this might happen where the back wheel would go crazy. So this is a tool that's designed to hold handlebars straight when you're working on the bike. So we just strap one end to the handlebars and then you hold the bar straight and you attach the other end somewhere on the frame. And now I can just tighten this little guy here and now these bars will not move. I think if you ride it now, it's just going to ride like a normal bike. So it's all you. I'm going to try a new mounting method since my confidence is higher now. It works. You ready for this? It's going to be a lot harder to ride with two people. I got to be honest, I've never ridden a penny farthing. It's kind of a nice ride. It is weird though. When I go to turn, I am not used to this. The front wheel hits my leg because the pedals are attached to the freaking wheel. That's going to take some getting used to. Also no brakes. So that seems kind of silly, that little thing holding the handlebar straight, but it's very instructional because now when we ride it together, let's say you're the co-pilot, you're going to sit down and hold your hand dead straight and just pedal backwards. It gave me a lot more faith that we can do that. Like let's just ride it. It makes sense, right? Yeah. So who's getting on first? I am the park tool tool. Okay. Oh, you got to take it easy on this thing, man. Now remember, dead straight backwards. Okay. You're dead straight now, right? Yeah, dude. I got to focus. This is harder than I thought it was going to be, bro. I am just trusting you right now. You got it, man. My head. I'm staring at the wheel. I think you just got to relax and it'll work. How are we doing this? It works. I don't get it. So sick. This is awesome. Okay. I'm turning. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I am so disoriented right now. Okay. You just pedal backwards and power us. I've got my feet off now. Okay. I'm powering. This feels so messed up, bro. Just wait till you go backwards. All right, let's stop. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh, that's a problem. Dude, that was awesome. I can't believe we did that, bro. That is a crazy feeling. Well, so now I'm going to go backwards and you're going to go forward. It's hard to control. So you'll be the pilot and I'll be the co-pilot. Dead straight. Yabba-dabba-doo. Yabba-dabba-doo. Backwards pedal. Oh my gosh. It does move a lot. I think you're going way too fast for starters. Okay. I'm going to go super slow. All right. Pedal a little bit. I'm telling you, it was hard to pilot. Okay. Ready? Yep. We're going right out of the wall, so that's a good start. So you pedal backwards and we're going to get the feel of this. It is every little movement. There's a lot of flex. Yeah. It helps you feel what you're saying. We're in business, baby. We're in business. This is so weird. We're in it. I'm taking us between posts. This is not the sickest bike in the world. How much fun is it riding backwards? Dude, it's so fun. It's so much fun. So we're both relaxed and it's just working now. It's just working. You just relax. Dude, this is so cool. It's the best bike ever. You got it? My turn. My turn. You have to tell me port or starboard. Which do you mean? Left. Left? You're right. I don't know what's ported starboard. Okay. Okay. Regroup. I'm stopping. I'm stopping. I'm stopping. Okay. Why are my arms so sore? I don't think I ever really relaxed. This is going infinitely better than I thought it would. I know what I'm talking about. No, you don't. I know. It was hard, but it worked. And it is so fun. Getting started is really, really hard. But once you get going, if you can relax and get a feel for it, going backwards is freaky. It's got like a reverb to the steering. It's like every movement you do has like a ghost movement after it. Because of the flexing. Right. Because it's a whole crap load of high tensile steel. This is your first time seeing the Siamese penny farthing. And it's all of your first time seeing it. And so I bet you have a bunch of questions. Why don't you ask me some questions about it? I mean, my first question is, did you make this? There is no such thing as a Siamese penny farthing. It's something I came up with. And so I bought two 36 inch Hopley penny farthings. I have a fabricator friend and I paid him to weld it together. I actually made a rendering in Photoshop of what I wanted it to look like. And he made the design. Exactly. He didn't even ask me why there's a floating wheel in the middle that doesn't do anything. It's there for style. The next one is initiating a turn with both riders. And I think it's from sitting there. I know exactly how we have to do it. Let's say you're the pilot. Yeah. You're going to go forwards. I'm going to go backwards and we're going to get comfortable. We're going to get into a big circle. And then when you're ready, when you feel comfortable, tell me to start turning and I'm going to gradually start the steer. And then if we feel comfortable there, we're going to get tighter and tighter and tighter until the thing turns into a pretzel. All right. I'm ready. Okay. I'm up. We're turning a little bit. Nice. We know how to do this now. Yeah. Tell me when you feel comfortable and I'll start initiating a turn. I'm feeling pretty good about the turn we've got going. Okay. All right. Maybe try turning a little bit now. All right. I'm turning a little tiny bit. Holy moly. That turned us fast. Let's just go for it. Turn a little more. Yeah. Oh my gosh. No way. You're scared. How tight are we right now? Are we in place? What's happening? It worked perfectly. Of course it works. I told you it would. I can't believe that just happened. We're like Penny Farley mad scientists. Okay. Let's do it again, but I'll be the pilot and you be the co-pilot. Okay. Deal. Okay. And then hold your hand straight. Okay. I'm going to go into whoa. Oh boy. What's happening? I don't know. It's flexing a lot. Okay. Initiating turn. Oh my gosh. Okay. Let's try to do a rear steer. You're going so fast. All right. Here. I'm turning a little bit. Keep us upright here, dog. Okay. You ready for hard stuff? Yeah. Are you still upright? Dude, I'm turnt. Dude, we are turnt. Turnt. I can't believe how well the turning worked. I mean, we were basically just there looping around, but the next one I have serious doubts about, that is the co-pilot swap. So co-pilots here at the rear traveling forwards, stop. There's nothing balancing the bike and we got to get going in the other direction. I think the best strategy for this is to just get on and start trying. Okay. So Alex, you're going to start as the pilot because I think switching in the other direction is actually going to be really hard. Give me a little power. Little power. Here you go. We're up. All right. Make sure you feel comfortable. And then when you start feeling really comfortable, just start trying to get the bike to go as slow as you can. Kinda. Okay. I'm going to start slowing down now. Okay. Oh, it's so, it's so hard, bro. It gets so wobbly. Let's learn how to ride slow. Are we going this way? For this second, we are. You're going fast. Let me know when your feet are off the ground. Feet are off the ground. All right. I'm going pretty slow. I'm going to get going even slower. All right. I'm going to try and switch direction. Tell me when. Now. I will say we got going way slower that time. So that was like definitely an improvement. Okay. So let's get going. Let's get relaxed. All right. I'm going to just practice going slow. Stay relaxed. All right. We might be able to do it. Okay. So few more tries. We might, we might have, this is clearly a forest. Are your arms like smoked? They, they are. My arms are so smoked. We're locked in. We're going to go slower, slower, slower. Zen. Zen. One, two, three. Three, two, one. Now. I don't know. This is, this is kind of insane. I mean, it makes perfect sense that this would be hard because we can barely get the thing started. All right. One, two. We need the perfect storm. We really do. We really need the perfect storm. If we get this, it's going to be, it's going to be one shot. One time deal. Yeah. It's going to be a one time deal. Maybe if we like hit into the wall and then went back. Yeah. Use the wall to stop us dead in our tracks. Just run head first into the wall and then right out. It sounds like that could go badly, but if we're going slow, I don't think it's a problem. I think we should try it. I agree. Okay. So I'm driving. All right. Very slow. Okay. Very slow. You are going to have to tell me when we're about to hit. We are going to hit the brick wall in three, two. First try. First try. Three, two, one. Hit. Back. Yes. We are up and running. I told you. I told you it would work. I saved this one for last because it's the one that everybody's wondering about and it's the one that normal bicycle physics don't really play into. The crab walk. So we're riding it, right? If I turn this way and then you also, so we're both turning right. We're both turning right. The bike is going to start to drift off one way. In my hypothesis is that if the person at the back locks off their steering like this, the rider at the front can modulate and keep us up and do some corrective steering. And I think it's going to work and it's going to look super weird. Okay. Are we up? Whatever you feel comfortable. Just communicate with me. Tell me what you're doing. Initiating crab walk sequence. No way. I am so disoriented. Okay. So we're still working on successfully crab walking this thing. And I just noticed something. This is starting to bend. These ornamental wheels are now closer to the ground. The head tube angle has now changed. And I was very specific with the fabricator. I wanted it to look like two penny farthing. So I didn't want a big crossbar over here, but I think that's necessary. So we are living on borrowed time with this bike. Wouldn't you say? Don't try to modulate your steering. Okay. Just do it and lock it off. And I will deal with keeping the bike steep. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So you're going to try to crab walk away from the wall. Okay. Initiating crab walk. Three, two, one. Are we doing it? No. Okay. Honestly, my expectations have kind of been blown away. We did four challenges. Crab walking just doesn't work out that well. And this thing is a ticking time bomb. And so I have a couple of bonus challenges that I really want to try. And I think we got enough life left in this bike to do it. Can I like by myself stand here and make the bike go? I'm just going to try it. Dude, you're doing it. Of course I'm doing it. Okay. No way to stop. So we're going to have to turn into the parking lot. This is a dumb idea. Really dumb idea. You ready? I will handle the rest. Of course it works. If you love these videos and you like going fast, check out my new Tunnel Vision shirt available in the link below. Tunnel Vision is what you get when you're thinking about the path ahead and nothing else. Four out of five ain't bad. If you like weird bikes, bicycle education, everything in between, check out the playlist below. Subscribe to both my channels, Berm Peak and Berm Peak Express. Thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time.