“Little Joan”
Tinkerer presents the world’s heaviest bicycle
Tinkerer Sebastian Beutler sits on the 2.18 ton bike. photo
© Frank Christiansen/dpa
Sebastian Beutler reverses the trend in the bicycle industry and relies on the heaviest possible vehicle. His self-construction puts more than 2 tons on the road – and still runs on muscle power.
The cargo bike is 5.2 meters long, almost two meters high – and weighs more than two tons: Tinkerer Sebastian Beutler (39) presented the heaviest bike in the world in Düsseldorf. The self-made called “Little Johanna” weighs an impressive 2.18 tons. Beutler’s world record was confirmed a few months ago by the “Record Institute for Germany”. This is considered the German-language counterpart to the Guinness Book of Records.
The bike has a truck gearbox combined with a bicycle gear system. It also has an engine, “but it only operates the alternator and charges my cell phone,” Beutler told dpa on Sunday. He presented the monster at the Cyclingworld bicycle fair in Düsseldorf.
He put three years of construction time and about 2500 hours of work into the self-build. His acquaintances had warned him about his plan: “You’ve got a bang, stop it,” they said. A low-loader was needed to bring the cargo bike, which can actually be moved on the street, to Düsseldorf.
Bike tour planned to the Baltic Sea
The “Little Johanna” has 35 forward and 7 reverse gears and can actually be moved with the pedal power with the legs. “I can even pull 15 tons with it without any problems,” said Beutler, who built the cargo bike in his home town of Köthen (Saxony-Anhalt).
Next summer he wants to go on vacation by bike to the Baltic Sea for the first time. “That’s 389 kilometers and it takes me about a month.” His bike also has a can holder made of solid cast iron. He got the tires and most of the materials except for the rims from junkyards.
If cars behind him honk because they find his bike too bulky and slow, he just gets off and walks away, Beutler said. He doesn’t even have to lock the bike. He doesn’t even have a lock for it. The Cyclingworld trade fair ended on Sunday evening with a record number of visitors – 23,000 came to the exhibition grounds.