I read the story this week of a Japanese adventurer who is traveling up the Australian coast by scooter. (By “scooter”, I don’t mean a Vespa. He’s pushing himself along with one foot while hanging onto the handle bars of an old-school scooter). It’s a cute story, good luck to him. He got coverage in the press! But nothing like the level of attention that stunts like this achieved a century ago.

Strange ways to get around—or extreme endurance versions of normal ways —have been attracting participants for longer than you might think.