The Last Word: Old-Fashioned Bike Draws Lots of Attention
I own a bike. It's easy to get on and off. It's easy to start and stop. It's a nice smooth and safe ride. There's nothing unusual about my bike at all.
That’s not the case for Nate Latimer. I watched as he rode his bike on the streets near Edinboro Lake. His bike IS unusual. It's an old-fashioned high wheeler bike. This was the style back in the late 1800s. In England, the bike is still called a penny-farthing. One big wheel in the front. A much smaller wheel in the rear. Nate owns 814 Outdoor Sports in Edinboro. He never thought about riding one of these bikes until four years ago when a customer came into the shop who owned one and wanted Nate to sell it.
"So I told him I would if I could ride it,” recalls Nate. “I started messing around with it. Started to get a little bit faster."
Nate enjoyed that old fashioned bike. He would ride it around town. He would ride it in parades. He served as the director of the Quad Bike Race and he rode the bike in that race. He admits that he loved the attention he received.
"I'd go around training and everyone would just get so excited when they saw me. I need motivation to train so it worked out really well,” says Nate.
Last year, Nate decided to find a race that featured only penny-farthing bikes. He found just one. A half-miler in Frederick, Maryland. He trained. He entered. He did okay. This year, he entered again. He finished 14th in a field of 60 racers.
"Since it's the only race in the country, I can technically say I am the 14th fastest penny-farthing racer in the country. I don't know how true that is but it's fun," says Nate with a laugh.
Nate still gets curious looks when he rides by. He still gets a lot of questions. The most popular question is "How the heck to you get on and off?" Nate explains that he pushes the bike forward, then uses a peg at the rear of the bike to climb on. He slows the bike down and uses the peg again to dismount. Oh yeah. There's no brakes on this bike and that gets dangerous sometimes.
"Sometimes it gets a little scary because somebody will pass me in a car and they'll immediately stop because they'll want to ask a question or take a picture or something and it's really hard. I can't do an immediate stop,” says Nate.
Nate still loves to answer the questions. He loves posing for the pictures. He loves riding his old fashioned bike. Nate's family is well-known for organizing the Quad Games. Nate says he would love to someday organize a local race featuring the old fashioned bikes.