One of 40 sets of pedals. Photos: James Coleman.
Suspended from the roof of a private car showroom in Fyshwick – fortunately with some very sturdy metal brackets – is perhaps one of Canberra’s biggest inventions. Literally biggest.
It even appears in the 1974 edition of the Guinness Book of Records, described as the “longest tandem bicycle ever built”.
It’s still held to be the “World’s Largest Pushbike”, and you might have seen it riding down Northbourne Avenue during the Canberra Festival in the 1980s, or when it was on display at the Dickson Tradies Club (which used to operate a bike museum) around the same time.
It just keeps going.
For decades, however, it’s been hidden away from the public in storage first in Woden and then out on a property at Captain’s Flat.
Not anymore. All four tonnes, 23 metres, 40 bike seats, and two enormous steamroller-esque wheels has joined the collection of cars and motorsport memorabilia at Ollies Garage, a museum-like car showroom on Gladstone Street.
And caretaker Ian Oliver even hopes to have it riding again sometime soon.
Technically the story starts in Queanbeyan in the early 1960s, when Mr Oliver says a group of young men “decided to build a large pushbike” – as you do.
It started with eight seats, and its chief builders Phil Cartellier and brother Wally “had a lot of fun in the early years, attending street parades and festivals” across Queanbeyan and Canberra (including for Canberra’s 50th jubilee in 1963).
Appetite sufficiently whetted, the boys decided to go bigger and, in 1974, broke the Guinness World Record for the “longest pushbike” with a total of 30 seats and 15 metres.
Historical images from the time capture it riding down Crawford Street in Queanbeyan, and even making waves throughout Australia, such as at the Moomba Festival in Melbourne and at events in Maitland and Townsville.
The bike has travelled as far as Melbourne and Townsville in its life.
Then came reports an overseas group was plotting to go bigger by creating a bike with 36 seats. The Cartellier brothers would have none of it.
It was back to the shed and to today’s 40-seat bike, and while Mr Oliver can’t conclusively confirm it, he can’t find any trace of a subsequent attempt to beat it anywhere in the world.
While Guinness never published it again, representatives did visit the ACT to watch this third iteration complete its “required trip” down Northbourne Avenue. Because it was so heavy, the handle bar had to be hydraulically assisted with a sort of pump, jack-type system.
Mr Oliver has a long history with the bike, having sponsored and stored it as owner of Capital Storage. It’s changed hands a couple of times since then, until its latest caretakers, O’Neill and Brown, offered to donate it to Ollies Garage for safekeeping.
“I would like to see some interest in it,” Mr Oliver says.
“Maybe take it out for a little ride one day, because the beauty is having it back out again. If there’s interest, we’re going to start a group called ‘Friends of the World’s Largest Pushbike’.”
Mr Oliver doesn’t own everything inside the showroom – a lot of it is on rotation from friends or car clubs. But he expects the bike to be on display for a fair while, given the effort it took to get up there.
“It was quite the ordeal to get it installed … and put up there by about five or six blokes with forklifts and all sorts of things.”
Ollies Garage is open one Saturday a month only, and by appointment at other times (or you can take the virtual-reality tour).
