Wooden Bicycle

In article said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not sure how practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

No wooden fork, the cowards!

Well, they don't have to worry about rust -- only termites!

-Bob

"Arthur Shapiro" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not sure

how

Quoted message said:

practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

Art

It's not really a new idea. My grandmother raced bikes back in the 1930s. To get the weight down
then they made their bikes from wood. She still has one of her wheels, made into part of a piece of
art hanging on the wall in her house. She was shocked by how light they bikes are now. She picked up
my husbands Trek 5200, and wouldn't put it down she was so much in awe.

Nice, but why?

"Arthur Shapiro" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not sure

how

Quoted message said:

practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

Art

Nice work.

This has been tried before. One picture book I have of old bicycles shows an Italian "Littorina"
from 1939. Iron was being rationed in anticipation of war. It has wooden rims with ordinary metal
spokes, a wooden frame and fork with metal dropouts. Wooden fenders, chainguard and handlebars, with
a metal stem and seatpost.

It also shows some Bianchis from 1946 with metal frames, but wooden rims, still metal spokes.

For more modern examples, check this out.

homestead.comwoodeye.htmlOpen ↗

Whether or not these are actually any good for riding, you have to admire the craftsmanship.

MP

(Arthur Shapiro) said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not sure how practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

Art

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:30:39 -0500, <[email hidden]>, MP

Quoted message said:

Whether or not these are actually any good for riding, you have to admire the craftsmanship.

Wood is the original material for bicycle frames. Steel came later.

Fifty-two year old, Giorgio Calderoni, rode one built by Vinicio Magni in the 1998 Paris-Roubaix .
--
zk

Not exactly craftmanship, the thing is all CNC'd. Yuck.

"Arthur Shapiro" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not

sure how

Quoted message said:

practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

Art

In article <[email hidden]>, "Gerry"

Quoted message said:

"Arthur Shapiro" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ran into this in a woodworking newsgroup. Good job, although I'm not sure

how

Quoted message said:

practical.

eldon.k12.mo.usbikepage.htmlOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Nice, but why?

It was a CNC woodworking class project. They could either do another bloody armoire (probably the
teacher's 20th). I say bully.
--
Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden] sfu.ca~rcousineOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

In article <[email hidden]>, "GWB" <[email hidden]>
wrote: --> Not exactly craftmanship, the thing is all CNC'd. Yuck.

Well, after a few decades in the computer industry, it is impressive to me - no familiarity with CNC
other than having seen it at various speaker manufacturers' facilities. Just for the sake of
discussion: I'm assuming these students aren't really creating anything, but are using "canned"
software applications for their CNC machine. Right? If so, how difficult is it? I can't imagine how
one would describe the requirements for those wooden handlebar grips.

Art

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Well, after a few decades in the computer industry, it is impressive to me - no familiarity with
CNC other than having seen it at various speaker manufacturers' facilities. Just for the sake of
discussion: I'm assuming these students aren't really creating anything, but are using "canned"
software applications for their CNC machine. Right? If so, how difficult is it? I can't imagine
how one would describe the requirements for those wooden handlebar grips.

I'm not that familiar with CNC either. However, my guess is that they developed the design and the
machine cut it out. Plugging in an existing design wouldn't have been much of a task.

And I imagine the handlebar grips are simply applying a pre-existing cross-hatch pattern to
a cylinder.

MP said:

Nice work.

This has been tried before. One picture book I have of old bicycles shows an Italian "Littorina"
from 1939. Iron was being rationed in anticipation of war. It has wooden rims with ordinary metal
spokes, a wooden frame and fork with metal dropouts. Wooden fenders, chainguard and handlebars,
with a metal stem and seatpost.

It also shows some Bianchis from 1946 with metal frames, but wooden rims, still metal spokes.

For more modern examples, check this out.

homestead.comwoodeye.htmlOpen ↗

Whether or not these are actually any good for riding, you have to admire the craftsmanship.

Wood rims were pretty common in the 1930's . Steel spokes, normal tires and tubes, oak rims. The
Shwinn "fastest bicycle on earth" was a single speed bike with wood rims. It broke the human powered
speed record in the 1940's. I saw the original in a display case in Cap's bicycle shop in Sapperton
(New Westminster) Canada a few years ago. Love it. A single speed bike with a huge chain ring and
wood rims. A French rider (he must have had thighs like steamboat pistons) rode it . Sorry to bring
such lousy details to the table...

Here's something: p4a.com60804.htmOpen ↗ Here's something more:
p4a.com60804.htmOpen ↗

My point is wood rims were fairly common on domestic (North American) bikes in the early 1900's.
Steel rims were found on higher quality wheels and on Euro racing wheels of the 30's . BTW, bike
racers in the 1930's commonly road raced on "track" bikes. My Dad raced from Red Deer Alberta to
Edmonton Alberta on a single speed "fixie" (mfg in Belgium) until WWII came along to cramp
everyone's style.

Regards, Bernie

I know that this forum is a year old but on the chances that anyone will read this. In todays age everything is made using CNC or a similar type process. Keep in mind that these were High School age kids that created this bike. There were no templates for any part of this project, the students created the programs for every wooden aspect of the project(including the handle bar grips). As for the why question, it should be why not, the idea was to show them that they could do it. I know that I learned a lot when I was challenged by instructors, meaning that I wanted to do something even more when I came up with an idea and was told that it would be a challenge if it were even possible. Why is it that people in these chat forums like to tear people and things apart without knowing anything about them. My suggestion would be that you guys check things out and try to grow a little before ripping into others. I know that the students have just recently run across this through word of mouth and don't have any good things to say about it other than they want to see you do it.