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Wooden bikes

materiabikes.com

21–30 of 238 posts

Re: Wooden bikes

#21

I don't understand the market for bicycles in the thousands of euro price range. Bikes get stolen often enough for me to never be relaxed leaving such a bike outside a shop or caffe or such. If you can't leave the bike anywhere, it's almost useless, except perhaps as a virtue signalling device.

Huh? I have a £2k bike. Had it years. Never leave it in public. Doesnt stop me commuting on it to work every day or taking it out for rides at the weekend.

Re: Wooden bikes

#24
post #17

I wonder if wooden bikes bring any safety concerns in the event of a crash, since when wood breaks it can become reasonably sharp, like a spear.

Aluminum framed bikes do that, old heavy steel would bend but aluminum tends to break all at once. Though it's worth pointing out that you really have to be doing something stupid to see this sort of rare effect.

Re: Wooden bikes

#26
post #20

Funny how the website only highlights the advantages of wood as a material, and plays down its disadvantages. Namely, a stiffer, more rigid frame is more efficient. I personally loved how my aluminium road bike rode, more so than steel, particularly because I can feel the road, and my pedal strokes have a more direct feedback. If a frame absorbs some of that vibration, it is naturally going to absorb some of your ene…

I guess it depends on the kind of bike experience you want. I see people riding extraordinarily impractical bikes every single day.

Of course that would make wooden bikes a matter of taste, and not superior by any stretch of the imagination.

Re: Wooden bikes

#27
I think bikes will become a niche sports product, replaced by E-Scooters for basic transportation around town, and autonomous cars/minibuses for anything longer.

Re: Wooden bikes

#28
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Better than carbon [citation needed]

Carbon bikes are made from hollow tubes, hollow tubes can buckle / collapse, plus carbon bikes are designed for lightness, not sturdiness. Wood can take a beating, but is a lot heavier.

Carbon bikes are made for stiffness and ride quality - you can make equally light bikes with Alu / Ti.

Re: Wooden bikes

#29
The best materials for damping vibration have low density and low stiffness. When coupled with the low vibration transfer speed, these properties determine how well a material damps vibration.

Based on the table below by "stiffness" they mean Young-modulus. None of these quantities describe damping of vibrations in a material. Also Young-modulus and density determine the longitudinal vibration transfer speed (this is what they list in the table). So saying "coupled with low vibration transfer speed" is a bit misleading.

Re: Wooden bikes

#30
Ride comfort (on a rigid bike) is primarily a function of the tyres (size/inflation/construction).

A bike with cheap 23c tyres at 150psi will rattle the fillings out of your teeth.

The same bike with decent 25c or 28c tyres at e.g. 50-70psi (depending on rider weight) can float along with a magic carpet like ride.

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