Australian Craftsman Breaks Two Penny-Farthing Records

A man in Melbourne is making the world smile, one impossibly tall bicycle at a time.

Dan Bolwell handcrafts penny-farthings in his Bacchus Marsh workshop, and he's just become a double world record holder. His creation "Big Bertha" stands 282 centimeters tall and required 12 steps just to climb aboard, earning the Guinness title for world's largest rideable penny-farthing.

Bolwell started this unlikely career after leaving his family farm at 30 with no formal education or backup plan. But he'd been building modern bikes for years, and when he needed flexible work to raise his kids, he took a chance on the vintage bicycles that captivated him.

That was 2012. Since then, he's shipped more than 400 custom penny-farthings to customers in Belgium, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Borneo, Israel and beyond.

Some orders are simple. Others take two months to complete, like bikes with gold-plated handlebars or intricate custom designs that customers dream up.

The bikes themselves create unexpected moments of connection. One Sydney customer who lived alone and kept to himself started riding his penny-farthing each morning, and neighbors began greeting him daily. Those brief interactions, Bolwell says, "meant the world for him."

Sunny's Take

What makes this story shine isn't just the world records or the craftsmanship. It's watching someone transform uncertainty into purpose, then share that joy with hundreds of people worldwide.

Bolwell describes the mechanical simplicity of penny-farthings as almost magical. Direct pedal power translates into motion through a giant wheel, reaching speeds up to 60 kilometers per hour with no gears or chains required.

He's become known in the trade as Penny Farthing Dan, and he loves watching people's reactions. "They captivate most people. They create a lot of happiness," he says. "A lot of people smile, they're so unusual."

The bikes date back to the 1870s and 1880s, when they were simply called bicycles. Only later, after easier-to-ride models emerged, did they get the penny-farthing nickname based on two British coins.

For new riders, Bolwell offers one crucial tip: look up, not down. "Every time I do a training session, people look down and I say 'look up', and it just smooths right out straight away."

From a farmer with no clear path forward to a world record holder shipping vintage bicycles across the globe, Bolwell proves that sometimes the most unusual passions create the brightest futures.