Pedersen on a budget

As mentioned before, one of the very reasons for existence of Badenia cycles is challenging the paradigm and stereotypes of bicycle construction.

Therefore, it was for me clearly obvious that the first project of Badenia cycles was going to be a Pedersen bicycle.

What is a Pedersen bicycle anyway?

Well, there are many sites that deal in detail with Pedersen history, design, ergonomics, functionality, etc., etc., as the few examples below

http://www.pedersenbicycles.com/form.htm
http://www.dursley-pedersen.net/index.html
http://www.pedersenbicycle.dk/

In short, Mikael Pedersen was a Danish engineer and inventor who developed this bicycle concept at the turn of the XIXth century. At that point in time, the diamond frame so-called "safety frame", as opposed to the penny-farthing type of frame, which was not considered to be particularly safe, was established as a standard in bicycle construction. The whole Pedersen concept originates at challenging the paradigm of the bicycle saddle. The notion of what a bicycle saddle should look like comes probably from transposing the heritage of equestrian tradition into wheeled vehicles. Pedersen wanted for his bicycle a hammock saddle. His frame concept originates from the necessity of developing a structure around that saddle to provide the two anchor points for such a hammock.

Pedersen manfactured his bikes commercially in England from 1897 to about 1917, vanishing after that the concept into oblivion. Here is an example of an original Dursley Pedersen from 1910.




Project specifications of my recreation of the Pedersen concept

- street bike with 28" wheels
- based on a discarded "donor" bike, probably a woman frame type
- utilizing as much as possible the original components or other recycled components
- silver-brazed frame with lugs
- dismountable, bolted frame construction
- decent amount of gears to render it functional (if possible internal hub gear)
- estimated 200 hours of work (nice winter project)