Big Wheel Bike

So this guy walks into the bike shop a few weeks ago riding this on a world tour.

An L.E.D. lamp hanging off the axle in a traditional housing.

He picked up the proper English headgear, with an Australian emblem if I remember correctly.

The view from the saddle (custom bar ends!); and a view of a handlebar repair.

Regular clincher tires cut from the bead and glued onto solid rubber cores.

His name is Jonathan Summerfield, or Joff, and he's as interesting as you'd expect. His website is of course Penny Farthing World Tour. His itinerary to date reads as such here. Joff was on this leg when he passed through Salida, and the next section to Kansas is recorded here. He's somewhere near Virginia/Maryland at this point, if not further. His pictures are excellent, the ride must be amazing. His Penny Farthing (the difference in wheel size is likened to the difference in a penny and farthing coin) is fixed: if the wheels turn, the cranks turn. An upright position, a certain learning curve, but there's no doubt he knows what he's doing, on a bike he built himself. He told me about crossing Himalayan passes, chatting with the airlines (for oceanic flights) about stowing his bike away, and all in all, clearly having a very good time.