Wooden recumbent trike

[mowo]

Wow that´s awesome. So great to see. And great work!
Do you ride them?

How long did it take to make your wooden bike?

Well that´s a hard one. The actual frame in it self, didnt take me that long. I would say around 80 hours give or take.
The time consuming part is all about the finnish. Hand sanding and shaping takes time. Mine is nowhere near perfect, but i was also afraid to spend what felt like a million hours on a bike that actually might brake in peices on the first ride. All in all I´m guite pleased with it as it is. It makes me proud i guess.
The bike hasn´t had any real road riding yet, so time will tell.

I must say though, I really learnt alot during this build and it is by far one of the most giving projects I have ever done.

 

[jayjay]

A fellow called Lothar Ko has been posting photos over on Facebook of his trike, which has a large section box plywood frame around the sides. Think of a velomobile with the top and bottom thirds sliced off. It avoids the use of bendy struts holding the parts together. It does use a metal front axle and rear wheel mount though. Lovely work. I don't know if this link will work, especially if you don't have Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009816187658&fref=hovercard

 

[jonny jeez]

A fellow called Lothar Ko has been posting photos over on Facebook of his trike, which has a large section box plywood frame around the sides. Think of a velomobile with the top and bottom thirds sliced off. It avoids the use of bendy struts holding the parts together. It does use a metal front axle and rear wheel mount though. Lovely work. I don't know if this link will work, especially if you don't have Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009816187658&fref=hovercard

Ooo, my eyes...it looks like a bed!

 

[jonny jeez]

Hi guys! All new here.

Looks like i just found the right place to be hangin. Hard to find solid info in Denmark.
In the near future i´m going to build me a wooden recumbent trike, and i intent to suck your souls out regarding info. (Just Kidding) Hope that´s okay.

I´m in the finnishing process of my "vintage" wooden bike and as soon as it´s done, i´m going to work on a trike. Really want to do this, and it´s probably going to be one of the first.

My almost finnished "vintage bike"

I´ll use my regular bike in the city and the trike for a bit longer commutes. A least that´s my plan..

If any of you guys know of any good diy sites or trike part dealers in the UK, I would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers, and may the wind be with you.

Morten.

Very nice, chains slack though.

I've often looked at the "borin bikes" in schiphol and wondered if they are really made of wood or just some clever paint?

 

[raleighnut]

The Japanese make some lovely bikes in wood

 

[Recycle]

Here's a wooden velo. The idea was inspired by the WWII mosquito aircraft which had a wooden frame. It has rear steering which makes the front wheel drive engineering easier. and I remember one of the objectives was to produce a sub 20kg velo but I'm not sure if they achieved that.
http://www.mosquito-velomobiles.com/

 

[Recycle]

It has rear steering which makes the front wheel drive engineering easier.

Whoops I'm wrong, reading through FAQ I see it's front steered.

 

[EatSleepRideRepeat]

Heres something to inspire you, a safer, stronger and much faster machine than a trike, and no 'chassis'.
https://picasaweb.google.com/105053136520471653574/FriendWoodWoodenVMMkII

 

[Wobbly John]

I built a wooden recumbent from James Robinson's plans. He was working on a trike based on the same idea - he sent me some draft drawings, but I don,t have them any longer and I haven't seen a trike built from the plans.

The velomobile above looks good. It makes sense to exploit the properties of wood rather than try to mimic metal tube construction.