The penny-farthing he would ride on this year's Penny-farthing and Vintage Cycle Tour had a very comfortable seat and at a leisurely 15kmh riders would cover the distance with less than five hours' riding a day.
Fourteen riders will drive up to Nelson before starting their annual ambassadorial tour, on penny-farthings and vintage cycles.
Running from tomorrow to Thursday and starting at Quinney's Bush, near Nelson, the tour follows the 174km Tasman's Great Taste Trail.
Mr Simpson, who has been riding penny-farthings since 2000, will be the only Oamaru rider this year but will be joined by riders from Canterbury, Hamilton and Napier and ``one chap from Australia''.
This year's tour would make one school stop in the Tasman district, but the riders were typically well-received wherever they rode, he said.
Outside Oamaru, penny-farthings were considered a curiosity and a cafe stop for the riders would likely draw admirers of the bicycles.
And when the riders return to Oamaru, many would take part in one of the Victorian Heritage Celebrations' premiere events - the 23rd Heritage Cycle Championships on November 18, for which hundreds were expected in Tyne St to watch sprints, slow races and slalom events.
During last year's races, Oamaru penny-farthing stalwart Oliver Briggs had a spectacular crash during a slalom race when, on a turn, a tyre slipped off its wheel and threw him over the handlebars of his bicycle.
Yet Mr Simpson maintains the penny-farthings are safe bicycles, more so than the so-called safety cycles that became popular in the late 1880s, sporting two equal sized wheels.
``Over the years, we probably have had more crashes on those bikes than we've ever had on these, and more injuries actually,'' he said.
