15 thoughts on “Wooden Bicycles”

1. I won’t be here in 50 yrs but it would be interesting to hear your viewpoint then.

2. RT: I am not sure i understand what you mean?

3. You are young and find all this wonderful. In some number of years this will seem so distant. I didn’t mean this in a “bad” way, just one of curiosity.

   I must stop commenting on posts. My apologies.

4. ha ha, I am not sure pushing thirty counts as young, but I hope to still find things wonderful in 50 years, if i am still kicking around then.

   You must continue to commenting on posts, the blog would be so much more boring without it!

5. You haven’t even made it to 30? Mercy.

   I have the benefit of an elderly parent to help me with perspective. My mother is still kicking at 84 (at least, I lose track of birthdays easily) and I talk to her on the phone 3 times a week and visit once a month or so. She is intelligent (I was blessed to come from to two intelligent and nice people – seems to have been wasted on me :) and we talk about a wide range of topics.

   Because of her age we talk about the effects of that on people, she having first hand experience. She will say things like “I thought I was old at 60” then a pause “thought I was old at 30” and she laughs. My favorite saying is, age is a matter of mind – if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. Mother pretty much lives that way.

   She is an excellnt person to talk to about current events about because she can add the perspective of more history than I can provide. We generally reach the conclusion that the more things change the more they stay the same. I know it sounds cliche but talk to someone who has been around for a significant portion of a century (dad was in the military so they traveled a lot – overseas as well as the US) and see if what they went through isn’t very similar to what you are going thru.

   This perspective, on a much smaller scale (I’m just over half a century but it seems like I’m climbing fast :), is what I hope to add to the Seitch. I don’t want to extinguish the passion of youth, just provide a little balance. Passion doesn’t mean you are correct, it certainly doesn’t mean you are logical, but it is difficult to find all three on one package. I try to be the tail on the kite. That’s probably dated as well – they probably make only box kites now. You guys soar, I’ll try to keep you pointed up :) It would help if we had perfect knowlege but we don’t.

   If you have the benefit of an elderly relative that enjoys talking to you please avail yourself of that opportunity. It takes a lot of time – I really should be visiting my mother more – but it will give you insight that is hard to get from a book. And not just on the ways of the world, you may well discover a few things about yourself as well.

6. There, that’ll teach ya to say I should comment :)

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8. On a recient cruise there was a terrific wooden bicycle that was part of the on-board art auction that caught my eye. While the bike was ridable it was obvious that it was probably intended for display. The bike had a name etched into its frame that appeared to be “Tiuo Saug” and had a serial number of 0096 (which suggest that quite a few of these bikes have been made). The name was in script and difficult to interpret, so I could be wrong about the spelling. What I am trying to determine is exactly who made the bike. I have pictures if that would be of help in identifying the maker (but need an E-mail address to mail them).

9. My questions is, does wooden equal sustainable? I am a serious bike geek and sustainable development advocate. I’m thrilled with all the wooden bike pictures. I’m particularly enamored of the bamboo bicycle frame as that strikes me as a really good idea — strong, light, and requiring little additional processing, such as lamination.

   The big question is what is the energy/carbon cost of the bike frame over its lifetime? If I have one steel bike frame (and I love the ride of steel bikes, hate aluminum) that lasts 30+ years, like my ’71 Raleigh Superbe, how many wood bike frames will be required to give equivalent service? How much of the energy and carbon cost of the bike is in the structural steel (or aluminum, or carbon composite) and how much is in tires, tubes, seat posts, cranks, and bearings?

   I’m betting that in the right climate a bamboo bike frame would be a big win, since bamboo is a great structural material and could last a long time. But I don’t know that for sure, and I do know that there are steel bike frames that are still good after 50 years of service and could last 50 more with minimal maintenance.

   Has anyone done a study on this? Any good arguments?

10. Hello Richard

    I would say it completely depends on where you get the wood, and how you grow it. But there is no reason that a wooden bike cant be completely sustainable. You would simply need to plant enough trees to make up for the ones you are cutting down (this happens all the time in this country for items like paper)

    That being said a well made (metal) bicycle has a very small carbon footprint, and because it is one of the most efficient modes of human transport it quickly makes up for the small amount of energy used to create it.

    I have no firm numbers but I do know that a bicycle uses a tiny fraction of the materials in a car, and if you ride it regularly instead of use your car it should even out very quickly.

    I am thinking you would have to talk to someone in bicycle business to figure out just how long it would take to break even (assuming you replace your car with a bike), but my guess would be less than a year, if you rode it on a weekly basis.

    Bamboo grows very fast, but if you cut down rain forest to grow bamboo you really aren’t doing anyone a favor. So like wood it all depends on how you grow it and who you get it from.

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12. A long time after the last comment I would like to mention a new link to this impressive list of wooden bikes : http://blog.borisbeaulant.com/?cat=11

    Ok, it’s not realy a bike, but a trike … but it’s in wood.

13. wooden trike, welcome to the future!

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15. CHECK

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