A few weeks ago I had the chance to ride one of these buggers so I'd figured some the gist of it would be interesting.
It's easy to learn if you know how to ride a conventional bicycle, took me about 2 mins of nearly falling over, then another 5 minutes of white knuckling the handlebars until I relaxed and could ride it
The turning circle is atrocious on account of your legs being in the way
it's surprisingly more comfortable than you'd think given looking at it.
It is very hard to resist the urge to throw mock 20th century phrases about while sitting on one. My mind was screaming at me to ask people the directions to the General Post Consulate as I needed to contact the Governmental Juror of Prussian-Siam while sitting on it - I think it is a cognitohazard
The ride's nice enough, even on the tiny back wheel, to the point that I thought "man I get why people back then were all about this" about the OG version considering it was like the first individual transport option bar walking. This honestly beats walking by a mile.
Never much considered what the ride quality of a modernized PF would be like, but that long curved steel down tube looks like it would offer a good bit of shock-absorption despite the small wheel. That 36in wheel is awesome.
The history of these 36 inch tires is interesting too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coker_Tire
I keep thinking a micro e-car / velomobile with 36s would be pretty cool to see.
Corky Coker is in the running for best name