penny-farthing 
noun historical
An early type of bicycle, made in Britain, with a very large front wheel and a small rear wheel.He takes us from the French pushbike or draisine of 1816 through boneshakers and penny-farthings to the English velocipedes and the Humbers of the 1880s....
- British cyclists likened the disparity in size of the two wheels to their coinage, nicknaming it the penny-farthing.
- The present-day style of bicycle was rapidly replacing their penny-farthing bicycle during the 1890s.