Wooden bicycles, lots of pics

[spinningmagnets]

The "TJ Flyer" (Truss Joint) 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood over Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)

[Zoot Katz]

I forgot this one Justin found on the prairies.
Richard Pitre's bike made of hockey sticks:

[spinningmagnets]

I found the Igor Ravbar bikes fascinating, made of steam-bent strips. I recently stumbled across a story about furniture making where strip wood was bent by applying the side of the strip to a hot-pipe (heated by an electric element or a small propane torch).

The heat partially melts the connective lignin "glue" between the fibers, and if clamped in shape while cooling, the strip will retain its bent shape. Gluing several similarly bent strips together makes a laminate that is light and strong with a certain amount of springiness to it, much like a laminated archery bow.

this site is for making guitars, but it had the best pics for the hot-pipe wood-bending method.

http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/luthierie/guitarmaking_guide/side_bending/side_bending.html

[Lock]

Wood is a fantastic building material. It is only important that 1)you dry the moisture content down to about 10% in the finished structure and 2)that you absolutely seal the wood completely to keep any moisture out after that.
tks
LoCk

[spinningmagnets]

This is "Le Zelo", a homebuilt wooden recumbent tadpole trike from Boris Beaulant.

http://www.borisbeaulant.com/



From Sakari Messuilla

[spinningmagnets]

From the "Atomic Zombie" website, Jon in Maryland

[Lock]

Beautiful things! Saw this concept the other day, here:
http://www.sandwichbikes.com/

olc_bike.jpg (16.63 KiB) Viewed 9410 times

...but it pales in comparison (although intended as super-cheap/easy to build...)
tks
Loc

[spinningmagnets]

Here's a great link about making your own fenders out of thin wood. It looks like a great winter project when you're stuck indoors. You can make them very simple and classic, or as complex as you want if you have an artistic streak.

Once the thin wood substrate is shaped, you can take a razor blade and cut veneers into patterns of stripes, diamonds, or any shape you want to make a attractive skin to add. Add a coat a clear sealer and you're set. Home-made guitar websites have some great info with lots of pics on making a skin of attractive wood designs.

http://www.momentumplanet.com/components/how-make-your-own-wooden-bike-fenders

http://www.woodysfenders.com/store/

[def215]

thats just amazing. i wouldnt think that bike could be made out of wood but that proved me wrong. there are some pretty cool designs that they have. how about building your own http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... o-Bicycle/

[spinningmagnets]

Good find, def215, I have seen pics of bamboo bikes on the web, but the instructable you found had great info on the process, so a home-builder could make one themselves. I originally started the wooden bikes thread because I was interested in collecting info and examples of methods for construction used in the past, and I knew wood could be very strong and reasonably light if engineered properly. This would allow me to make a custom frame just the way I want (and I have odd taste). Pic is from bamboo-bike link above (frame ended up being VERY strong)

[torqueon]

great workman ship

[spinningmagnets]

A Long-Wheel-Base (LWB) recumbent. Lots of good building advice, also take note it has a rear suspension. It would not be difficult to redesign this with a break-apart joint in the center for storage or transportation...

http://www.time-compression.com/x/guideArchiveArticle.html?id=11046

[Lock]

Bugatti_2009.jpg

(53.46 KiB) Downloaded 47 times

Seen here:
http://www.custombrigad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5513&sid=56095817f66427e9e6bef409be75b99b
tks
Loc

[spinningmagnets]

Random art bike, no info...

[Mike1]

I once had a bike with a wooden frame, wooden wheels, wooden gears, wooden seat, wooden batteries, wooden controller, and wooden motor.

It wooden go

[def215]

I once had a bike with a wooden frame, wooden wheels, wooden gears, wooden seat, wooden batteries, wooden controller, and wooden motor.

It wooden go

hahaha...good one. i guess something like that wood be hard to build...lol

[gestalt]

this thread is reminding me of that futurama episode where bender goes "low tech". I have been tossing the idea back and forth of a bamboo ebike based on the utility designs that those calfe guys are teaching people to build in africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RdxKXz216w

[Jonathan in Hiram]

Here are a few more I've found..

plywood bike 1.jpg (120.88 KiB) Viewed 3845 times

plywood bike 2.jpg (114.27 KiB) Viewed 3844 times

plywood bike 3.jpg (116.65 KiB) Viewed 3827 times

plywood bike 5.jpg (44.53 KiB) Viewed 3824 times

[Lock]

Just seems appropriate to add this video here (wooden motor!)


tks
LoKc

[Zoot Katz]

Just seems appropriate to add this video here (wooden motor!)

Revelstoke and other places of the BC hinterland had their own hydro powered generating stations for the nearby town.
The one in Revelstoke had huge wooden gears.
Mills, monasteries and militaries ran on wooden gears and shafts for much of their early history.

A recent show at the Vancouver Museum exhibited a third-world ambulance made of bamboo.
I've seen a few different bamboo trailers, lashed together with inner tubes, roaming Vancouver's streets.
Bamboo is relatively expensive compared to lashed together ladders, lawn chairs, kids bikes and baby trailers from the trash.

Use the materials at hand.

[Jonathan in Hiram]

Revelstoke and other places of the BC hinterland had their own hydro powered generating stations for the nearby town.
The one in Revelstoke had huge wooden gears.
Mills, monasteries and militaries ran on wooden gears and shafts for much of their early history.

A recent show at the Vancouver Museum exhibited a third-world ambulance made of bamboo.
I've seen a few different bamboo trailers, lashed together with inner tubes, roaming Vancouver's streets.
Bamboo is relatively expensive compared to lashed together ladders, lawn chairs, kids bikes and baby trailers from the trash.

Use the materials at hand.

John Harrison was the man who invented the first marine chronometer, capable of accuracy sufficient to determine longitude. Harrison was originally a carpenter and joiner and created many clocks from wood, one of which, crafted in the early 1720's was at Brocklesby Park, North Lincolnshire. This clock operates to this day, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement, oak and lignum vitae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

[spinningmagnets]

Anonymous builder, looks like a construction woorker...

[spinningmagnets]

From Japanese wooden boat-builder Sueshiro Sano

http://sanomagic.world.coocan.jp/Lineup/english_sanomagicbikelineup.htm

[def215]

that is a really good looking wood frame. nice find spinningmagnets

i found this one strange, but i like it for some reason

oddly shaped if i may say...lol

p.s. looks like a motor could be sneaked into that frame somewhere and hidden into the wedge-shaped frame. i kinda wanna build that thing now...lol

[12p3phPMDC]

Great thread SpinningMagnets!!!

I'm amazed at the ingenuity displayed in this thread... it's awesome

The old chinese carpenter crank bike seems to be the most resourceful of all the builds....
my hats off to all them.