Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The "Oriten"

The Guinness Book of Records.  London:  Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1956

This one-of-a-kind 10-passenger bicycle was built in 1896 by the Orient Bicycle Company of Waltham, Massachusetts as a public relations gimmick.  (Orient-Ten, "Oriten", get it?)  The 23-foot-long, 305-pound bike was featured at local bicycle meets and could reach speeds of 45 mph.  Like most bikes of the 1890s, the Oriten had no brakes or gears. The only surviving Oriten is on display in Henry Ford Museum.

It held the record for the longest tandem bike for over 50 years. Impressive, although I'm sure that the record has since been surpassed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There was only one ever made.