Wiltshire duo attempting world record on tandem Penny Farthing
Tim Maltin and Rufus Flann are hoping to ride the furthest distance in an hour
Last updated 7 hours ago
Two men from Wiltshire are attempting to set a world record on a tandem Penny Farthing today (7/8).
Tim Maltin and Rufus Flann are attempting to ride the furthest ever distance in an hour on a tandem Penny Farthing at Palmer Park in Reading.
Theirs is one of many world record attempts today, which include the fastest ever speed on a Penny Farthing, and the longest ride without using hands.
The bike Tim and Rufus are using was built in the UK after Tim was inspired by an old collectable cigarette card from a collection made by his great-grandfather.
"I thought, 'wow, I've never seen one of those before. It'd be great to make one'. So I sent the picture of the cigarette card to unicycle.com. And a very nice guy there called Roger actually built the bike from the image on the cigarette card," he explained.
From there, they were invited to join the Penny Farthing club at Palmer Park to set a record.
"We're hoping to do over 20 kilometres in the hour and if we can get that we'll be delighted," Tim said.
19-year-old Rufus, who is friends with Tim's son, Aubrey, got his first taste of riding a Penny Farthing when Tim got one during the pandemic, which has led him to have a lot of experience on the bike.
The original plan was for Rufus and Aubrey to be making the record attempt, but Aubrey is working in Denmark, meaning his dad has taken his place.
They explained that much of their training has been an hour a day on single Penny Farthing's, but they've had a few sessions on the tandem.
And ahead of the record attempt, they've been fine tuning the bike for optimal performance.
"Penny Farthings are bicycles without chains," Tim told us. "So basically, the speed that your little legs go round is the speed that the wheel goes round. So we're trying the shorter cranks so that, although acceleration will be slow, hopefully when we get up to top speed, we'll have some smooth power delivery."
Tim said setting the record would be a win for British engineering and "it would be great for us personally", while Rufus said: "It would be incredible. I mean, even just having a Guinness World Record in your name is quite a cool thing."
The hope is that once a new record is set, Aubrey and Rufus can attempt to break it in the future.