Gizmodo: wooden bicycle

Chinese Villager Takes Wooden Bike Out For a Spin

Elaine Chow — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:00:00 EDT

A carpenter in a Chinese village, perhaps unwilling to spend what would amount to a month's pay on a bicycle, has created a 100% wooden one to ride around town instead.

55-year-old Peijia Wu, from Shandong province, allegedly took three months to build his DIY wooden bike. It features no metal parts whatsoever – joints are fixed with small wooden bungs and a rod-crank system has replaced where the chain would normally be.

Ingenious! It's like a stair master and a bike rolled into one and it's probably less likely to fall apart than other wooden bike models. [Chine Informations via Shanghaiist]

High School Student Builds 100% Wooden Bike

Kit Eaton — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:24:25 EST

16 year-old Marco Facciola built this completely wooden bike for a school project, managing to avoid using any metal at all. Yes, this wooden wheeled wonder even has a chain and gearing made of wood, held together with wooden joints and glue. The detail in the free-wheeling ratchet and spacers between the chain links, pinned with tiny dowels, is amazing. Marco had to complete this as a non-academic project for his International Baccalaureate, and inspiration came from his grandfather, forced to make wooden wheels for his bike during the war due to rubber shortages. [LeeValley via Neatorama]