Natural Material Bicycle

I really like the idea of using less metal, especially metals that use a lot of energy to refine like aluminum. I follow the WoodlandsTV YouTube channel and always enjoy their videos, but this one just blew my mind. A bicycle made out of coppice wood. I think this could be a truly regenerative form of transportation (apart from walking) that sequesters carbon and promotes woodlands. This is totally opposite to metal extraction that requires in many cases removing woodland.

Anybody has ideas on how one could do this on the homestead scale?



Their website is http://www.beamz.org.uk/

Adrien Lapointe : Here are a couple D.I.Y. bikes that already have track records, The 1st one is a cardboard bike Yes a cardboard bike with the inventor Exploring

The possibility of limited manufacturing - - - See link below :


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/06/03/188263533/cardboard-bike-creator-may-soon-start-peddling-his-product


I will find out more information regarding a bike makers guild in New York City who builds lightweight Bike frames out of locally sourced Bamboo !

For the Good of the crafts ! Big AL

- So I have not found a U.S.A. ////bamboo Bike at all but lots of U.K. bikes///////1 /a simple and honest evaluation follows see link below :



F'the crafts B'AL

-and " bamboo bike studio'' is the correct search term !//// see link below :



Also if this makes your creative juices flow try the links below :

http://forum.atomiczombie.com/gallery/index.php

http://www.instructables.com/howto/Bikes/

f-th'crafts B'AL

verrrrrry neat, i like this guys explanations too. super interesting. thanks for sharing adrien.

That wooden bike looks amazing! But I would be worried about the safety of a wooden fork. I myself have built two bamboo bike frames (one road, one mountain) and they work really well. There is enough information on the internet for a doityourselfer to build one, but all builders advice against using bamboo for the front fork. One sustainability drawback is that the joints are made using synthetic resins (epoxy most commonly) reinforced with either carbon fiber or any natural fiber (e.g. jute, sisal, fique, banana or that other plant that must not be named on permies). I do remember that one of the oldest US bamboo bike makers (calfee bikes) has made at least one frame using a natural resin, but the details were kept secret.

Makes me wonder how the wood is hollowed out in the first bike? Having messed with center drilling green wood for lamps I know from experience that since the heart wood is harder and denser that a drill tends to drift to the outside and it is almost impossible to simply drill those sorts of distances.

C. Letellier wrote:Makes me wonder how the wood is hollowed out in the first bike? Having messed with center drilling green wood for lamps I know from experience that since the heart wood is harder and denser that a drill tends to drift to the outside and it is almost impossible to simply drill those sorts of distances.

The method is called Gun Drilling it involves a precision lathe and a Gun Drill Bit.

Here is a video on how it could be done.