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    Wooden bike

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Woodworking
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    • R Offline
      remus
      last edited by

      That sounds like a pretty cool idea, i'll suggest it to my friend.

      He's pretty keen on carbon fibre (he's a bike freak) so he'll lap it up 😛

      Just an afterthought, doesnt carbon fibre gain its strength form being laminated in several layers and having a resin applied? i.e. would just whacking a piece of cf cloth in between the 2 laminates actually have any advantage? or would you need to get the resin out?

      http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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      • Dave RD Offline
        Dave R
        last edited by

        You'll need to make more than two layers of laminations. Figure more like 6 or 8 depending on the diameter of the frame pieces and the length. I'd put a layer of carbon fiber cloth between all of the layers of wood. Use epoxy for the layup and make sure each layer of cloth gets well wetted out.

        Etaoin Shrdlu

        %

        (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

        G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

        M30

        %

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        • R Offline
          remus
          last edited by

          Cheers for the clarification.

          http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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          • ton baetenT Offline
            ton baeten
            last edited by

            Remus,

            The idea (wood plus carbonfiber) isn't new.
            Take a look at http://www.jangunneweg.nl (both English and Dutch).

            greetings,
            Ton

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            • Jean LemireJ Offline
              Jean Lemire
              last edited by

              Hi Remus, hi folks.

              May be your frined can use thick plywood and cut a large opening so the frame will be what would be left and be only one piece.

              Another possibilitie could be to use broomball sticks or hockey sticks. These are quite solid.

              Just ideas.

              Jean (Johnny) Lemire from Repentigny, Quebec, Canada.

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              • R Offline
                remus
                last edited by

                Not sure about the plywood idea jean, it would be pretty wasteful and not very stiff either. Could be quite wasetful as well. Also not sure how youd go about doing the rear triangles.

                the hockey sticks sound like an idea worth investigating though.

                Saying that, my friend has currently put the project on hold because it's "too specialist" or some other nonsense. I told hed be a fool not to do it but he wasnt convinced.

                Im thinking about giving it a go at the end of the year, though, i'l just have to see if i get any spare time.

                http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                • Dave RD Offline
                  Dave R
                  last edited by

                  Actually plywood could work. Yes, it would be wasteful, though. Layers of marine grade ply could be glued up with a wedge shaped spacer to split out the rear. You could do all kinds of funky things with the frame shape.

                  Etaoin Shrdlu

                  %

                  (THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE)

                  G28 X0.0 Y0.0 Z0.0

                  M30

                  %

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                  • T Offline
                    tirapop
                    last edited by

                    A bunch of links to flesh out the topic.
                    cnc wood
                    http://bikeportland.org/2008/02/07/nahbs-preview-introducing-renovo-hardwood-bicycles/#more-6633
                    http://www.xylonbikes.com/models.html

                    ruminations
                    http://bicycledesign.blogspot.com/2008/02/bent-ply-bike-sketches.html
                    http://bicycledesign.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-wooden-bikes.html

                    bamboo
                    http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2008/02/bamboo-natures-composite-part-1.html
                    http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2008/02/bamboo-for-bicycles-part-3.html

                    pushing the envelope with wood... a wooden supercar
                    http://www.joeharmondesign.com/
                    http://joeharmon.blogspot.com/

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                    • R Offline
                      remus
                      last edited by

                      cheers for the links.

                      Whenever i see that wooden super car i always marvel at how easy all my projects seem in comparison 😛

                      http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                      • S Offline
                        SchreiberBike
                        last edited by

                        I know a bit about bicycles and a bit about wood. I think you can build an interesting bicycle out of wood, but I don't think wood is really a good material for the application.

                        The three main tubes on a bike could be made of wood with little difficulty so long as the joints were still made from steel. But it would not last long because you can't bond wood to steel without making allowances for wood movement and any such allowances would require a loose joint.

                        As you look at a bike, you will find that there is really very little tolerance for material. For example, take a careful look at how the area around the bottom bracket keeping in mind the space taken by the tire, wheel, chain (in various gears), crankset, and chainstays.

                        Some decent bicycles have been made with bamboo, and I've read about efforts to do precision work in hardwood, but I suspect that they are basically carbon fiber bicycles with a bamboo/wood substrate. If they are taken care of well and the wood is completely isolated from moisture, they will probably be nice, but heavy bikes.

                        Bicycling puts surprising stresses on the frame and some components and the tolerance for failure is low.

                        All that said, I can imagine a market for high end "comfort" bikes made of wood, or with wooden accessories. I've also looked at what would be involved in making wood rims. Wood was the original material back at the turn of the last century, and for a tubular tire it's not terribly difficult.

                        Good luck - be careful - prove me wrong.

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                        • daikuD Offline
                          daiku
                          last edited by

                          One of the guys in my shop did this with one of our cutoffs and something he found in a dumpster...

                          http://www.northernlightstimberframing.com/images/misc/timber_bike_01.jpg

                          Clark Bremer
                          http://www.northernlightstimberframing.com

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                          • R Offline
                            remus
                            last edited by

                            A true lightweight masterpiece!

                            http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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                            • J Offline
                              Jim57
                              last edited by

                              To really add strength, the carbon fiber needs to go on the outside of the member.

                              I love the idea of bent laminations. You could do much of the jointery that way, if you think about how you'd like it to look and to be strong. Then making it is just problem solving— one by one and you are done.

                              How do you plan to adjust seat height?

                              When I think of the strength of a shovel handle vs. the strength of a bike frame (thanks for the example), I think the shovel handle would win hands down. It will be heavy, though, and that will be an issue if you do much riding.

                              Best Luck,

                              JIm

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                              • A Offline
                                AirWindSolar
                                last edited by

                                @jim57 said:

                                When I think of the strength of a shovel handle vs. the strength of a bike frame (thanks for the example), I think the shovel handle would win hands down. It will be heavy, though, and that will be an issue if you do much riding.

                                If anybody's still playing with the idea, I'd suggest solid bois d'arc. It makes ash look like balsa by comparison, though you need it completely cured out first, and it will blunt any tools used on it. (I used to turn it on a lathe with HSS tooling, and it was a constant two-passes-and-touch-up-the-edge process.) Once properly cured and finished, it's incredibly resilient, and as it ages, it tends to get even prettier.

                                I watched a friend ruin a decent axe trying to cut a 4" limb, and I've bounced a 10lb maul off a log 8-9 times before making anything that could be considered the start of a split.

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                                • J Offline
                                  jtri
                                  last edited by

                                  I am making a 5 ply veneer road bike frame now. The front triangle should be completed in a week or so. I designed the frame on SketchUp and and made the tube forms on a CNC. My model is not pretty but i will post a picture of it and some of the parts later. If anyone has questions let me know.

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                                  • J Offline
                                    jtri
                                    last edited by

                                    Each tube is a lay up of veneer - 5 ply using epoxy. The test pieces seemed very strong (My extensive shop testing was to make a tube and stress it. I know not very technical!) so no carbon fiber was used. I set up the geometry for the bike and modeled each tube in SketchUp, then in SketchUp made forms to be cut out on a CNC. Pressing the 1/2 tubes was very straight forward, just some clamps at the bench worked fine. Then joints were cut at the end of the tubes and the tubes were joined together in a mold so a 1/2 front triangle could be made.

                                    Now for some fitting to be done so that I can join the 2 halves, then it should be ready for the road this spring. If the snow ever melts here. Plans right now are if it works and passes a few easy rides, like a parking lot, to make another and do destructive and or strength testing, as I am not sure I could ever ride the first one, because I know I would always be wondering if I got a good enough glue bond at the joints!


                                    54 cm Aero road bike together.pdf


                                    DSC_0028.JPG


                                    DSC_0040.JPG

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                                    • M Offline
                                      mikedd
                                      last edited by

                                      Don't forget the drinks bar.

                                      bikebar.jpg

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                                      • gullfoG Offline
                                        gullfo
                                        last edited by

                                        maybe lashing of rattan parts would be lightweight and resilient enough?

                                        Glenn

                                        http://www.runnel.com

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