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JOURNALISTS:
High res. images downloadable from our P.R. company's
website:
www.atommpr.com
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The Managing Director’s Company Vehicle.
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Believe it or not, this is our M.D.’s only ‘company vehicle’! It has many new parts, but was originally made in the 1880s. A Penny-farthing is as difficult to ride as you might imagine - on this example the diameter of the wheel is 50 inches and the saddle is 55 inches from terra-firma. The rider can not reach the ground whilst sitting astride this machine; neither can he stop pedalling and coast along (while pausing to think of how to cope with an obstruction) as it has a ‘fixed wheel’.
Like many Penny-farthings (the proper name for which is an ‘Ordinary bicycle’) it has no brakes; the cyclist must concentrate and think ahead. So, if you should wave to a rider of an Ordinary, please understand if he is too busy to wave back!
Simon Kirby is sometimes seen riding to and from his office on this contraption, along the main Stratford to Oxford road. This is much to the surprise of the twenty-first century motorists sharing the highway.
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