I was walking around a town in Germany when I came across this display in a shop window. Kerger I presume was a well-known rider in his day. A so-called penny farthing (named after the currency in the UK before the introduction of decimalisation.) The size of the large wheel determines the gear ratio, so the smaller the wheel the lower the gear. The rider has to be agile to mount the bike. Stopping can be a problem with one brake touching the solid tyre. So if the rider applies it too hard there is a good chance the rider can go over the top. It was soon superseded by the so-called "safety" design which all the modern bikes are based on.
