Why solid tyres need to be tight !

Pictured above is a friend of mine Jack Castor from the USA on a New Zealand penny farthing tour. I was on the same tour when the above accident happened. The tour was from Mt Cook to Oamaru and Jacks header happened going down route 83 into the village of Kurow . It was a nice long decent and many riders took it at a slow pace , but as Jack is a very experienced rider he decided to go legs over . Putting your legs over the bars is the preferred method to safely descend a steep hill as if there is an accident you can jump clear of the bars instead of being trapped under them. Luckily for Jack in this case he had his legs over the bars and the English type tire on his new Willan replica bike stretched causing the tyre to come off a great speed sending him across the road. It is very rare such an accident is well documented and a film crew had been with us making a TV documentry on our tour and the following penny farthing racing in Oamaru. lesson to be learned - make sure you fit your tyre's very tight and the English tyre will stretch at high speeds !