Tandem riders, eat your hearts out

http://www.auctionflex.com/showlot.a...ction=&lang=En
or http://tinyurl.com/6eawwv

Basically, they sawed the small front wheels off two Star
treadle-drive safety highwheelers and cobbled the big wheels together
with steering, reversing the drive on the front.

Here's a Star:

http://www.auctionflex.com/showlot.a...ction=&lang=En
or http://tinyurl.com/6ndwjw

Darned hard to take a header on that beast. Here's the famous photo of
a Star clattering down the steps of the US capitol:
http://i11.tinypic.com/8ak80wj.jpg

An ordinary highwheeler would have sent the rider over the bars. The
claim that the stunt was performed late at night is implausible, given
the shadows. It's a nice photo, showing that boys have always enjoyed
playing on public steps on their bicycles.

Unlike pathetic modern tandems, there's no connection between the
drives on the Star tandem. The stoker powers the rear wheel, the
captain powers the front wheel.

The left and right treadles were independent, so you could push down
on both treadles at once and even stand on them. This trick helped the
Star win lots of climbing records.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel