Reproducible Wooden Bike

Intro: Reproducible Wooden Bike

The idea of this project is to make a wooden bike that you can download and assemble like an IKEA chair. There is already a lot of wooden bikes on the web but if you are not a professional woodworker or you don't want to spend month refining the parts until they would fit together, then the result will not look like the wooden bikes in design magazines...

It took me 7 days to make this bike (without the design) but I never used a CNC router or a hand router before. In Fablab Moscow we have all these machines and I was looking forward to having an opportunity to use it. So now if you wand yours, find a place with a CNC router (fablab or makerspace), cut the parts according to the files, cut also some lumbers and assemble it.

STEP 1: Tools and Material

Tools

• CNC router
• Hand router (25mm ball end mill and chamfer or rayon mill)
• Jigsaw
• Pressdrill
• Laser cutter (optional)
• Chisel 12mm

Material

• Plywood (15 and 18 mm)
• Lumber ( 40 x 20 mm: 200, 480, 490, 556, 556, 620, 620 mm) and (30 x 20 mm: 500, 500, 400, 400 mm)
• Cylindric lumber, diameter: 28mm length: 260
• Aluminum 5mm 20 x 40 mm
• Fork bearings
• Pedals with bearings and axle length: 68 mm diameter: 34mm
• HTD 8M 1440 belt
• Tire tubular 22mm
• Wheels axle and bearings length: 140mm
• M4 screws and bolt (40, 50, 70 mm)
• 5 times M6 x 100

STEP 2: Cut the Parts

Download the file and cut the parts. For the lumber, cut the length:

• 40 x 20 mm: 200, 480, 490, 556, 556, 620, 620 mm (mitre cut at 90 degrees)
• 30 x 20 mm: 500, 500, 400, 400 mm (complicated cut: see the files named "baseArriereBas" and "baseArriereHaut". Detailed explanation later)

STEP 3: Glue the Parts

I decided to glue one by one each layer rather than stack everything at once because it was easier to control the alignment.

STEP 4: Part Preparation

Then I sanded the blocks and made a rayon on each edges.

STEP 5: Lumbers Preparation

Unfortunately I had to adapt the lumber thickness with the plywood. I used a frame and a chisel to remove 1mm on each face ends.

The back lumbers have complicated cut so the simplest way to do it fast is to laser cut the shape from the files named "baseArriereBas" and "baseArriereHaut" and report it on the lumbers. Then I cut with the jigsaw and finally sanded the last imperfections.

I doubled the down lumber to increase rigidity, it is now 40 x 40 mm. I recommend to do it also on the horizontal lumber.

STEP 6: Glue the Wheels

For the wheels I used a 3d printed shape to ensure alignment. All these discs have 15 mm thickness except the rear right ones who have 18mm (pulley side).

STEP 7: Make the Aluminum Reinforcement

I did it with the jigsaw but you can probably mill it with the router.

STEP 8: Finish the Wheels

You need to drill the valve hole and make the tire slot. The slot has to be 3.5 mm depth to fit the 622 mm tires. I used a 25 mm drill bit (ball end) because I couldn't find a 22 mm but it seems to be perfect. I dit the slot in two passes: One from one side and the other from the other side. I used an "airbone" pump to inflate the tires.

Finally drilll the rear wheel at 6 mm (use the shape "chablonTrou" as a guide) and add 5 M6 x 100 screws.

STEP 9: Frame Finition

Drill the fork hole with a 34mm drill bit. The position is in the center at 30mm from the front.

Then drill all the screw holes at 4mm and assemble the frame with glue and M4 screws. Then add the bearings.

STEP 10: Make the Pulleys

I used the laser cutter to make the pulley but you can also mill it in 15mm plywood. I glued three 5mm layers together. Then mount them on the pedals and the rear wheel.

You also need to add rings on each side of the front pulley to guide the belt (not on the image!).

STEP 11: Make the Fork

Cut the down part as in the image. Glue the round lumber and the two 40 x 20 lumbers. The spacing for the bearing is adjusted with the handlebar height.

STEP 12: Add the Saddle and Pedals

Cut a 40 x 20 lumber at the desired length with a 70 degree angle. Make a triangular reinforcement and glue it. Finally add wood screws between the saddle and the lumber. You can also sculpt the saddle to your morphology.

STEP 13: Make It Waterproof

Add coating (pain, lacquer or epoxy) to make it waterproof.

I still haven't done it yet because I want to be able to modify my design in this early stage of testing. I will of course notify it in this article if some major changes are done.

Comments

[gilbertetchristiane]

Bonjour je n' arrive pas à télécharger le fichier pour les plans

[paulov49]

Hi, can you show us the link for the crankset? and the belt?

[xred11]

Is there a breaking system? Is the rear hub a coasting hub or do the pedals keep moving with the rear wheel?

[AdrienR]

Now I don't have any breaks :(
The pedals keep moving with the rear wheel so I can slow down by pushing backwards. It is not effective like a break but for testing it is ok. I will figure out how to add at least a front break.

[Amwicr]

That's ok, some people really like fixie bikes.


Really cool btw!

[AdrienR]

Thank you

[OliDG]

Salut! Très joli travail, bel équilibre du vélo et surtout le poids est assez correct. Le post date un peu maintenant, comment ça a tenu dans le temps? Je regarde pour en faire un mais je crains que le bois ne travaille et que ça prenne du jeux dans le temps. Je me questionne surtout sur les jointures. Des conseils ?

Bien à toi
Olivier

[BilB4]

Looks great and looks like it uses enough metal not to fall apart in the first hour (though it looks like the belt might fall off the side of the gear pretty easily). I look forward to more updates on this - I would like to make this if it goes through a couple more iterations. How is it to actually ride?

EDIT: Oops, I see in one of the pics you've aalready dded a guard to stop the belt falling off the side.

[AdrienR]

Yes you are right in the first picture I had no guards. Now I have a guard on one side of the front pulley and both side on the rear for space reasons. It seems to work.
As I said the first ride was good but flexible so I am now doubling the top lumber (40 x 40) and when I am happy with the result I will glue everything and coat with epoxy or lacquer. This would probably add even more rigidity.

[gzank6]

perhaps the coolest thing I've seen on here. Very impressive would also like to know its weight, and when you can ship me one : ).

[AdrienR]

Thank you very much!
The weight is around 13kg. It was 12.7 but I am doubling the top tube (horizontal lumber) to increase rigidity. What weights are essentially the plywood parts so doubling the lumber has not a significant impact on the weight. (using 40 x 40 instead of 20 x 40). If you want I can ship you this one after coating :)

[diymontreal]

Wow! This is a very impressive design and build! I have been wanting to get a CNC and now I want one even more just to test this out.
I'm not sure I understand how you made the wheels concave to fit the tires, can you please explain more?
Merci et bravo Adrien!

[AdrienR]

Thank you!
I used a hand router with a half ball mill (cf. image). I first though to make a support for milling the wheel radially but finally it was simpler to mill the slot axially with a wooden guide screwed to the router (cf. 2nd image in step 8). The first image shows the mill type I used and the second image shows the process. I used the mill (that normally should be used vertically) from the side.

[sawdustagain]

Fascinating project! Please tell us how much it weighs.

[AdrienR]

Thank you
12.5 kg

[Kink Jarfold]

Well, I'm super impressed wth your skills.

[AdrienR]

Thanks