woodeye

Today, wood seems like a rather exotic material to use for bike

construction. At one time, though, there was nothing unusual about it. The bike industry switched to metal long ago; not because wood is inferior, but because metal lends itself better to mass-production methods. Same with aircraft. The Dehavilland Mosquito bomber was one of the fastest and

best-performing aircraft of WW2. Laminated wood construction made up the entire plane. For those who build machines one at a time, like us, wood is a perfectly viable material to use, this is

especially true with modern

adhesives and finishes. And

varnished wood is so pretty!

Below: Giuseppi Matera of Italy builds lovely wooden bikes in men's and women's styles.

He even makes a wooden exercycle!

Above: The Amazing Wooden Bike Company

offers a number of wooden bike designs, including the Dragon Bike seen on our cover. They are made in Java, Indonesia.

Below: Wood may be an ancient building medium, but that doesn't mean

wooden machines have to look old-fashioned. Peter Dahlberg built this one.

the owners of their respective websites.

Should you wish to try your hand at wooden bike building, you will find an excellent article by
Ferdinand Trautmansdorff on building wooden spoked wheels at the Stevenson Projects site.

Ferd describes the making of 16" wheels for

pedal-cars, but the process would be pretty much the same for bike-sized wheels.

Below: Another Italian, Tino Sana, also builds fine wooden bikes. Here are a pair of them.

Below: Old Hickory Ladies Model, 1896 from the collection of Pryor Dodge. From an article in EYE magazine, which shows other fine examples of wooden bicycle craft.

Left: Detail from another Old Hickory model. This one with wooden seat. From
Smithsonian Magazine.

Late Add:

In the interest of completeness, we feel compelled to add this bike, although we have almost no information on it. This photo is from MudSluts' Techno-Weenie

Tour of Interbike '97 (C) MudSluts.

If the maker of the bike will contact us, we

will be glad to run a better photo, more info, and link to the maker's site.