Wooden Bicycle

• k
  January 24th, 2008 at 6:44 am

  It won’t last for long

• webrunner
  January 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am

  Watch out for the groin splitters!

• webrunner
  January 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am

  oops, that should say
  splinters

• Sid Morrison
  January 24th, 2008 at 10:07 am

  That’s frickin’ awesome.
  As for it lasting long, the intent isn’t so much to have a practical bicycle as to challenge his woodworking skills … think of it more as a piece of art.

  The kid’s story on the link is interesting — His Dutch grandfather had to use wooden wheels on his own bicycle during WWII on account of rubber shortages. I have a related story: My mom was born in 1941, and as rubber was in short supply, when her father built her a toy wagon to ride in, he put wooden wheels on it. I had that same wagon growing up and I still have it (with the same wooden wheels — they wear fairly well actually). When the weather gets nice, I’ll plop my 1 year old son in it and pull him around in it as well. It’s 65+ years old, but still looks good.

• VonSkippy
  January 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

  Nice bit of engineering.

  Neat!

• ted
  January 24th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

  He can avoid splinters by varnishing it. I don’t know how he’ll avoid the splitters, though.

  Did he use wooden dowels instead of nails? That’s way more impressive than the paper engine with all sorts of non-paper parts in it.

• marieissah
  January 30th, 2008 at 4:03 am

  Is it really working?

• Jdog
  February 21st, 2008 at 6:52 am

  I got woodbikekid news item forwarded to me by a well meaning relative. A key feature discussed in the article was the biodegradablity of the thing. Yep, a few months lying on the ground and it will be indistinguishable from the rotting carcasses of the animals that lived in that Madagascar forest the ebony came from.

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