Marco Facciola, a 16-year-old high school student, created a functional wooden bicycle to fulfill a class requirement. No metal was used (even for the chain and ratcheting system) – only wood and glue.
Link – Thanks Andrew Phillips!
Sid Morrison
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.
ted
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.
Jdog
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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