The Repair Shop Penny Farthing Bicycle.

My first project for the Repair Shop in 2018 was big one. A victorian penny farthing bicycle. The owner was 80 year old Peter Swash who had found the bicycle when he was a school boy and had made it useable with the tools and materials he could find at the time.

The was to be my initiation into an already popular BBC TV show. It all started when I was copied in on a reply email to the producer of the show at the time. An original penny farthing bicycle from the 1880's had caught the eye of the casting team and they were looking for some who could rebuild it. My name was put forward by a friend as one of the people who had experience with rebuilding these high wheeled victorian bicycles. I had seen the show before and knew the format, but little did I know how much of a ride it would be. That first day was pretty scary. I'd only met some of the cast and crew on the first day of filming and they were all looking at me to rebuild a pretty worn out 130 year old bicycle. Blimey, no pressure then!

The job took 10 days to complete and included a full rebuild of both wheels with replacement spokes. However the main part that was missing was the saddle leaf spring with only the remains of the original left screwed to the front forks. The rest had long since gone missing, so In made a replacement using my knowledge of metal forging and experience of repairing and making saddle springs before. 

The full machine was test ridden on film by me and then returned to Peter.