Editing Penny-farthing (section)

== In popular culture ==
[[File:American Star, 51 inch, HB Smith Machine Company, Smithfield, NJ, 1885.JPG|thumb|An [[American Star Bicycle]] from 1885 with the small wheel in front]]
The bike, with the one wheel dominating, led to riders being referred to in America as "wheelmen", a name that lived on for nearly a century in the League of American Wheelmen until renamed the [[League of American Bicyclists]] in 1994.<ref>[http://www.bikeleague.org/about/history.php The History of the League of American Bicyclists] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216030410/http://www.bikeleague.org/about/history.php |date=2007-02-16}}</ref> Clubs of racing cyclists wore uniforms of [[peaked cap]]s, tight jackets and knee-length breeches, with leather shoes, the caps and jackets displaying the club's colors. In 1967 collectors and restorers of penny-farthings (and other early bicycles) founded the Wheelmen,<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.thewheelmen.org/sections/aboutus/aboutus.asp
| title = The Wheelmen - About Us
| access-date = 2009-01-24}}</ref> a non-profit organization "dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of American cycling".

The high-wheeler lives on in the [[gear inches|gear inch]] units used by cyclists in English-speaking countries to describe gear ratios.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_g.html#gearinch
| last = Brown
| first = Sheldon
| title = Sheldon Brown's Glossary: Gear Inches
| access-date = 2009-01-24}}</ref> These are calculated by multiplying the wheel diameter in inches by the number of teeth on the front chain-wheel and dividing by the teeth on the rear sprocket. The result is the equivalent diameter of a penny-farthing wheel. A 60-inch gear, the largest practicable size for a high-wheeler, is nowadays a middle gear of a [[utility bicycle]], while top gears on many exceed 100&nbsp;inches. There was at least one {{convert|64|inch|m|adj=on}} Columbia made in the mid-1880s,<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.niquette.com/bicycle-pavilion/ridethg.htm
| title = You're Never Going to Ride That Thing
| last = Niquette
| first = Paul
| year = 2005
| access-date = 2009-01-23}}</ref> but 60 was the largest in regular production.

A penny-farthing is the logo of [[The Village (The Prisoner)|The Village]] in the cult 1960s [[television]] series ''[[The Prisoner]]'', and is also featured in the show's closing titles. Co-creator and star [[Patrick McGoohan]] stated that the bike represented slowing down the wheels of progress.

The penny-farthing is a symbol of the cities of [[Sparta, Wisconsin]];<ref>{{cite web |title=Sparta: Bicycling Capital of America |url=https://www.spartawisconsin.org/community |publisher=Sparta, WI |access-date=28 September 2024}}</ref> [[Davis, California]];<ref>{{cite web |title=Highwheel Bicycle |url=https://www.cityofdavis.org/about-davis/history-symbols/highwheel-bicycle |publisher=City of Davis, CA |access-date=28 September 2024}}</ref> and [[Redmond, Washington]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.redmondhistoricalsociety.org/RHS/index.php?view=article&id=325:bicycle-capital-of-the-northwest&option=com_content&Itemid=185
| title = Bicycle Capital of the Northwest
| last = Torell
| first = Jerry
| access-date = 2016-10-26}}</ref>