Wood Bike 2

I got into wood bikes recently. I made Wood bike 1 and then have been looking on the net and elswhere for ideas for number 2. I found one on this site that I loved http://www.instructables.com/id/Bent-Plywood-Bicycle/ . This bike and others inspired me to make my own bent bike. I am fairly competent with tools and have a lot of bits and pieces in my shed.

It took me 3 full days and cost about $100 and a donor bike. I have a bit of tidying up to do but its pretty much finished.

Step 1: Getting started.

First I got a bit of ChipBoard big enough to fit the bike on and make my  bending jig. Then I put my bike on it and traced the frame with a pencil. Once I had an outline I used a bendy bit of yellow plastic to work out the curves that I like. I used a couple of screws to hold it into place while tracing

I had a $20 donor bike and decided to copy the frame geometry. I think its a fairly good bike but its about to cease to exist. 

Comments

[#OccupyInstruct]

how much does is weigh? it looks really nice but it would be a shame for it to be too heavy for a regular road bike

[Dj_Xyster]

I never wear gloves when using an angle grinder. In my metals class they told me gloves can catch and break fingers. I don't want to find out if this is true or not.

[HanzieO]

Also keeps the hands nice and soft for touching me lady if you know what I meen

[HanzieO]

I dont know about that. I would always use gloves suited to the task. I ALWAYS wear gloves and mostly it's skintight Kevlar knit with rubber coating. I am a tradie and would never go without my gloves.

[randomray]

In the States they're worried about getting hands caught in rotating equipment . There have been some really gruesome accidents wearing gloves . I use the same kind of gloves you do and there probably isn't much chance of a problem . Oh , and other then rotating equipment I Always wear gloves too . Great job with your bike , it looks great .

[HanzieO]

I get that a lot. Might have been true 20 years ago with pigskin riggers gloves but with today's cutting edge technology Ansell gloves there is a glove specifically Desighened for every task. Protect your hands! Just choose the right glove.

[bigtreehouse]

Oh, this is cool. Looks cool. How dose it ride?

[HanzieO]

You sit on the saddle and peddle with your legs;) no just being silly it rides beautifully.

[nitai108]

The design is quite unique!

[NaturalCrafter]

I love the detail around the peddle. That must have been tricky in wood. Looks good though

[paqrat]

A beautiful bike and very good instructable.

[Muddle]

Shouldn't that be- YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY CLAMPS?

[HanzieO]

Sure say it how you want. What I'm trying to say is go to the shop and buy more clamps.

[karlpinturr]

This is great - but how much of your 8x4 Ply did you end up using?

[HanzieO]

I had the sheet cut into 12 pieces of aprox 1200 x 160 and I have 4 left over. I was going to do 6 laminations but stopped at 4

[karlpinturr]

Thanks - would you do more next time?

[HanzieO]

No... I will do less timber with better glue and maybe a better, more informed choice of timber. It's plenty strong enough at 24mm thick

[karlpinturr]

OK, thanks again - I look forward to the next Instructable!

[Ferguson199]

Hey dude your handlebars are backwards.

[HanzieO]

Read it and you will know why

[NaturalCrafter]

Neat...I would love a wood seat with just a pad near the top of possibly leather filled with some sheep wool. Maybe "Steam punk" It with brass fittings... You really put a lot of work into it and its very smooth and sleek looking. Thanks for sharing. I'm just fantasizing..your doing all the work which took patience.

[HanzieO]

Watch this space. My bike is getting steampunked.

[uygur]

Perfect study

[Rizwan Azami]

A very nice instructable and a very nice looking bike. Thank you for sharing it with us. Just one thing though, how did you attach the brakes for the rear wheels? Or do you just depend on the front brakes to stop the bike?

[HanzieO]

Hi
I did end up putting back brakes on. I cut the mounting posts for the v brakes off the back of the old frame. Then I welded them onto a m8 x 30mm bolt head that was bolted to my frame. With double lock nuts

[Rizwan Azami]

Many thanks for answering the query and completing the instructable!

[ruviwije]

Awesome work on this bike!

V-brakes are amazingly better than older center-pull cantilever style brakes, but the force they generate will likely cause your wood frame to flex, or worse - break.  You may want to consider a device called a brake booster (approx $15 and up per pair) for each set of brakes. They'll install with (most likely) no mods needed to your build.

[playfulplans]

Well done HanzieO.

I can't comment on the particular stresses of combining the wood components with the bike frame. But I've built bentwood furniture parts since the '80's and it's inspiring to see you putting bentwood in motion.

I've not used ply for bends but the the premier solid wood for bending here in the US of course has to be white ash which has a very straight grain and tremendous elasticity. Sliced to under 1/4" thickness the pieces can be twisted into pretzels.

[macfeargus]

I have read that wood is ten time stronger than any other substance per weight.

[BtheBike]

Macfeargus Whats your source ? Even without knowing the context of that statement , i gonna call BS, with all respect. "Wood" strength varies greatly per application and type . I'll bet within your arms reach you'll find 10+ materials with higher tensile and load bearing cap than the hardest woods .

I'd love to have seen a non-functioning bike used as the donor. But for the sake of
Art , Great Instructable HanzieO .

[randomray]

Interestingly you are both wrong . Some woods are much weaker then steel or aluminum . But , most woods strength to weight ratios are as good as steel or aluminum or even much better . So unless you are in a high tech work shop there are not 10 different materials within arms reach .Now things like the carbon fiber forks on my bicycle or other high end sporting equipment is stronger . But wood is a very strong material that has evolved over millions of years to create tall slender structures called trees . Wood is used so commonly because it is light , strong and easily worked . Wood used as a pillar is about 4X stronger then steel and a sheet is 6X stronger the the same weight of steel . I don't know about 10X higher then most other materials ,that seems over rated . I'm not being critical of either of you wood is just a pretty good choice for a bike though there are many other good choices .

[macfeargus]

True but as i said by weight "Brittle materials, such as concrete and carbon fiber, are characterized by failure at small strains. They often fail while still behaving in a linear elastic manner, and thus do not have a defined yield point. Because strains are low, there is negligible difference between the engineering stress and the true stress. Testing of several identical specimens will result in different failure stresses, this is due to the Weibull Modulus of the brittle material."
Sorry i am having a hard time find a the exact specifications and tinsel strength on all different building materials. but i will re post with the specs soon.

[mrcurlywhirly]

The unit of measurement of tinsel strength is twinkles, commonly megatwinkles around the festive season.

[repguy2020]

What a lovely image. Megatwinkles! Awesome and saucy at the same time.

[BtheBike]

heres a decent example of where wood fails http://www.instructables.com/id/How-Not-To-1/step32/Shelves-of-Death/ . I could go on .

[HanzieO]

I can't say I have heard that theory

[Mark Rehorst]

You've heard wrong.

[emerson.john]

No way.

[Presentteck]

I highly doubt that, i haven't read up on it, but carbon fiber and acrylic are crazily strong and light. there has to be something stronger and lighter than wood.

[porcupinemamma]

Innnnnnnnnngeeeeeeeeeenious!!!! Way to go! :0)