Road Bike, Cycling Forums banner

Wood Frames... now cliche free!!

6K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  de.abeja 
#1 ·
The first bicycles (velocipedes) were handcrafted out of wood. When demand for bikes took off, builders started to look for easier to mass produce materials and wood fell by the wayside.

Clearly, as evidenced at NAHBS, wood is about to make it's triumphant return to the glory days of old!

Renewable, eco freindly, and a great way to stave off the chill on long winter nights, the wood bike will be the new "Green Machine"!
 
#7 ·
Why do the Mods hate freedom?

Subverting the lockdown -1. Finding cool wood bike pictures +2.

So this one lives.

So everyone (who loves wood bikes) wins.

Bamboo bike still the wood bike shizzle though.
 
#11 ·
Wood makes a good material for bikes.

What is no?

As a hobbyist woodworker, it's fair to say I love products that are made from hard wood, and stained. However, they make no sense in a bicycle application. The fact alone that wood contracts and expands with humidity should scare anyone off from actually riding one. Plus it weighs more, and takes way more human effort to create than any other type of bike.

Why?
 
#13 ·
Einstruzende said:
Wood makes a good material for bikes.

What is no?

As a hobbyist woodworker, it's fair to say I love products that are made from hard wood, and stained. However, they make no sense in a bicycle application. The fact alone that wood contracts and expands with humidity should scare anyone off from actually riding one. Plus it weighs more, and takes way more human effort to create than any other type of bike.

Why?
Doesn't look like a wood frame is as much of weight penalty as I would have expected. If the scales are to be trusted, it looks like the first bike not including pedals weighs in at <17lb - and I don't see any exotic weight weenie parts being employed.
 
#14 ·
I saw the Renovo at NAHBS and thought it was pretty neat. The frame is split, the "tubes" are hollowed out for a true monocoque structure, the wood is sealed with epoxy inside and out (keeping the moisture content of the wood stable so that it doesn't swell with humidity), and the two halves are then epoxied together.

My concern would be splinters in a crash. :blush2:
 
#20 ·
StreamerT10 said:
Which begs the question: What are they charging for one of these frames. No pricing on their website...
Couple grand supposedly according to a guy that emailed them (another thread).
 
#22 ·
StreamerT10 said:
Not as expensive as I would have thought... Very interesting....
exactly....

Tell you what I was cutting and splitting wood yesterday and was thinking about these bikes...if anyone has ever worked with white elm, steel would split more easily....wood is incredibly strong, particularly on compression....like in a main triangle. The forks and rear triangles appear to be made of more conventional materials.

They use hickory for sledge, ax and maul handles.....try that with a traditional top tube on a bicycle....the secret is in the grain configuration......major stress forces need to be distributed on either edge or end grain. They list Black Locust..I have seen 100 year old Black locust fence posts, buried in the ground and in good enough shape to keep livestock in.

Design is everything, just like any other material. Hollow "tubes" probably impregnated with
epoxy...not sure that is very different than a carbon fiber frame except that the wood fibers themselves, as a stand alone are strong.
 
#26 ·
AidanM said:
yay lets cut down trees to make bikes.....
Aidan, how many trees do you think would need to burn so you can mine, purify, smelt, draw, and braze steel, ti or alu? Or create CF fibers from scratch?

Ok so it's coal and petroleum/gas instead... old dead trees.

I betcha you could build that wood frame from a single mature tree, even accounting for pickiness in branch selection.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top