Kleine Johanna a 4,800-pound behemoth built almost entirely out of scrap metal, was recently acknowledged as the heaviest rideable bicycle in the world by the Record Institute for Germany, a national version of the Guinness Book of Records.
You’ve probably seen chunky bikes before, but surely nothing quite like Kleine Johanna. This unique contraption measures over 5 meters in length, is almost 2 meters tall, and weighs about 4,800 lbs (2,177 kg). That’s more than most sedans, so how on earth is anyone supposed to get it in motion with pedal power alone? Well, according to its creator, Sebastian Beutler, who lives in Köthen, a town in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state, it’s all thanks to the truck gearbox adapted to enhance the classic bicycle gear system. Kleine Johanna has 35 forward gears and 7 reverse gears and can not only be pedaled into motion by a single person, but it can also tow up to 15 tonnes, without any problems.
