Why no wooden bikes?

[hubgearfreak]

it is, however, a woody grass

[AlanD]

Just don't park near a Panda. Burp!

[stoobs]

Bamboo isn't wood.

It's grass.

Now I'm getting really confused between this thread, Handlebar Paranoia, and the "get-me-home-with-grass-stuffed-in-my-tyre" one!

My advice, thanks to Mick F, is "Don't get your grass and your wood mixed up"

I'm sure there's something about telling your grass from your elbow here, but I cant quite get there!

[T]

Bamboo probably isn't the ideal grass for stuffing tyres, but then since it doesn't seem to be useful to stuff tyres with ordinary grass, you could always have a go with bamboo if you felt so inclined.

As to whether wood being strong, light and flexible makes it ideal for bicycles, I think you have to consider just how flexible it is. If it is flexes to much, you will need to make much thicker parts to get the required stiffness. There is also the issue of humidity. For wood to flex with minimal damage, I think it needs to retain a higher water content than for static uses (12% comes to mind, which I think might be the normal water content of dried wood). When wood is dried it gains strength but loses ability to flex without major damage. The difficulty is sealing the wood to retain the correct humidity. You might find that you couldn't store your wooden bicycle anywhere too warm or dry. Also, repetitive and especially prolonged bending will lead to permanent deformation of the wood. That considered, I think a well designed wooden bicycle could work very well.

The biggest barrier I think is the massive labour cost and the large wastage. If the pieces aren't selected from the correct parts of the trunk, then they will flex in different ways, making the bicycle become asymmetrical when the weather changes, possibly to the extent that moving parts would rub.

[Fonant]

Oddly, perhaps because of the Like-a-Bike that started the trend, lots of trainer bikes are wooden.

Here are our twins (age 2.75) on their wooden Early Riders:



They love their bikes, and they're useful: they can do about three miles at a comfortable 6-10mph. Their mummy takes them out for a ride, perhaps to the local shops, or along the seafront, nearly every day. The trailer has been relegated to sag wagon

They can now balance pretty reliably, without putting a foot down at all on gentle downhill gradients. We didn't teach them at all, they've just learnt by instinct. Molly has just started to ask "can I have pedals?", but she's not tall enough for an Islabike yet...