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Collin Graver and his Wooden Bicycle (Video)
This is not a practical bike. "Even on smooth pavement, your vision goes blurry because you're vibrating so hard," Collin said to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter back in 2012 when he was only 15 -- and already building wooden bicycles. Collin's wooden bikes are far from the first ones. Wikipedia says, "The first bicycles recorded, known variously as velocipedes, dandy horses, or hobby horses, were constructed from wood, starting in 1817." And not all wooden bicycles made today are as crude as Collin's. A Portland (OR) company called Renovo makes competition-quality hardwood bicycle frames -- for as little as $2200, and a bunch more for a complete bike with all its hardware fitted and ready to roll.
Of course, while it might be sensible to buy a Renovo product if you want a wood-framed bike to Race Across America, you won't improve your woodworking skills the way Collin's projects have improved his to the point where he's made a nice-looking pair of wood-framed sunglasses described in his WOOD YOU? SHOULD YOU? blog. (Alternate Video Link)
Of course, while it might be sensible to buy a Renovo product if you want a wood-framed bike to Race Across America, you won't improve your woodworking skills the way Collin's projects have improved his to the point where he's made a nice-looking pair of wood-framed sunglasses described in his WOOD YOU? SHOULD YOU? blog. (Alternate Video Link)
I've also seen bamboo framed ones where jsut the tubes are bamboo. They're much like normal biles otherwise and I presume exactly as comfortable. There's at least one I've read about which is 100% wood. Getting the bearings and power transmission were apparently the harddest bits.
Can't find a link though.
Anyway props to this guy for making bikes out of wood.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I thought it was very nerdy, and very interesting too.
There has never been a time when wooden bikes weren't being made. As late as the 1930's, people were making bikes with wooden compression-type spokes, rather than steel tension-type spokes, and currently there are piles of amazing wooden bikes being made.
This Owen was used as a triathalon bike, with some very respectable finishes (race finishes, not varnish finishes): https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
Satoshi Sano has been building spectacular bikes using traditional Japanese boatbuilding techniques: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
and
http://sanomagic.world.coocan....
Note internal cabling in steam-bent frame elements, and a wooden seat on a steam-bent seatpost.
And since bamboo is wood, there are at least a dozen companies using bamboo as the primary frame material.
Calfee started it, as far as I can tell:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
But there are many others, like Panda and Boo.
Bamboosera makes a great Cannondale-shock mountain bike:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
and Hero Bikes make work and utility bikes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
Hero (and at least two other companies) go so far as to offer classes, where over a weekend you start out by harvesting bamboo, and end up making a complete ready-to-build-up frameset.
http://www.herobike.org/collec...
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Punch tree, make bicycle?
More seriously, why? If this was a 3D printed bicycle, I could understand it being here. If he was selling them for BitCoins, I could see why someone would post it to Slashdot. Even the summary admits that there is nothing special about this accomplishment, it's just a bandwidth-eating video and a link to a woodworking blog!
Then open your own website, and put only the "real" stuff on it that only your sort of nerd allows..
I'm a nerd, I enjoyed the article, the bike is cool looking, and the best part is that it really pisses you off.
Yup, sorta enjoyed that part.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
The AJC article mentioned the weight and the rough ride. I'd guess that yet another disadvantage of a wooden bicycle, at least when sharing the road with motor vehicles, is that it's impossible to trigger a green traffic signal without enough metal surface to disturb the flux in the induction loop beneath the approach to the intersection. At some intersections, even a metal bicycle has a problem with that.
While an all wooden bike (including wheels)might have problems tripping lights, I almost always can trip the lights with my Carbon Fiber bike with aluminum wheels, I just have to careful where I stop. I don't think an all-wooden bike (including wooden wheels) would be practical enough for much riding around town - the road vibrations noted in the article would make long rides unpleasant.
I thought the same thing. But I clicked on one of the links. One of the first things I looked at was how the pedals drove the back wheel. I figured it'd be a chain and sprocket he took off of a production bicycle. However, it looks to me like a three wooden gear setup.
This is a 15 year old kid. He built this using a single sheet of plywood. Even though he complained about the gears not meshing well, it's pretty damn impressive he was able to make these with tools you would find in, even a well equipped, home wood shop.
He did complain that he felt that using screws to hold it together felt like a cheat. So he plans to make his next iteration using harder wood for the gears on a CNC machine and glue and peg the entire thing together. Again, for a 15 year old kid, it's pretty interesting.
I'd take your post more seriously if you didn't make absurd generalizations like "steel is very stiff and wood is very flexible." From that alone it's obvious you understand nothing about materials.
Please help metamoderate.
There is more to nerdism than programming and Windows/OSX/Linux bitchfights.
Much as I love a good systemd related trollfest, and article like this is actually substantially more interesting. It really appeals to my inner nerd and has a good hacking aspect of just making something out of unexpected things for the heck of it.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Actually, wood can be quite good at bearings --- one just has to use the correct sort of wood. Lignum vitae was used for the bearings for steam paddle boats and submarines and is now being used for bearings in hydroelectric plants:
http://www.core77.com/blog/mat...
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.