The JANO Dual Bike: A Ply-wood By-cycle
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 06.12.07
TreeHugger loves bikes. There is no greener form of transport. But we often cop flak for showcasing up-and-coming designs that you can’t race down to your local bike store and buy. Frankly, we don’t care. Prototypes and concepts demonstrate that minds are ticking out there. And so much better that industrial design students and design studio interns develop new models for bicycles, than yet one more chair or lightfitting. Save us! So here we go again. Roland Kaufmann, of Austria, not only conceived the Dual Bike. But he wandered away from his CAD program long enough to craft a rudimentary but functioning prototype. Wooden kayaks sparked his interest and then he determined “that wood is up to 10 times stiffer than fibreglass and nearly 6 times stiffer than a kevlar/epoxy composite.” Plus he discovered that a specially prepared wood veneer shaped into a 3D profile could offer the bump absorption of carbon fibre but with the responsive feel of steel. That same profiling allowed the timber thickness to be reduced by 45%. The plywood frame creates a storage space ‘tween the cross bar and down tube for stowing small goodies. Other features of the design include maintenance-free belt drive connecting to internal rear hub gearing. In keeping with its European heritage a low resistance hub dynamo powers the integrated front and rear LED lights. Dunno how practical it will all be, but hey, we just like to see people thinking creatively about green design. Many more pics and info to be found at ::JANO Dual Bike at GP, via Core 77.
Why buy a plywood bike when you can make one yourself?
http://www.blids.nl/gallery/Plywood-Recumbent-Building-workshop-2003
frankly, you should care.
a lot of treehugger stuff is pie in the sky at a time when we need real world solutions
you should focus on that more
There is no greener form of transportation?
As much as I loathe the use of "green" as a semi-superlative, I would have to say that Sailboats are rather greener.
Whereas with a bicycle, you must fuel yourself with food and water (try as you might, but its hard to supply truly environmental/animal/labor exploitation-free foods in civilization).
WIth sailing, the wind moves you. Wind, just a good form of free solar energy. And rather than the production-intensive nature of refining rubber, kevlar, steel, aluminum, and plastic for bikes, all a sail boat needs is wood and fabric. Two very renewable resources.
A daily bike commuter, I love bikes. They aren't perfect though.
I encourage everyone to download Roland’s 138-page thesis pdf file, which covers his entire design process (in German). He did a very thorough job with the documentation of this design.
Sorry Tim! I'm sure there's some rubber, kevlar, steel, aluminum, and plastic in your sailing boat too...plus I'm land locked! How would I get to work! Sail!? This bike rocks and I'd love to see it on the market! I'd buy it in a sec. For now, I'll dream of it....Thanks Treehugger! Keep up showing me the "Pies in the Skies"! I need the inspiration.
I love the pie-in-the-sky stuff. Please keep it up.
Ignore the complainers. They never get anything done anyway.
There is no greener form of transport.
Huh? I'm thinking that the greenest bike is the old junker you rescue from a landfill and fix up. All the energy and materials that went towards its construction (minus those required to make new parts) would have been thrown out anyways.
We have to remind ourselves every time we see some shiny new "green" product that conservation by way of consumption has its limits.
I like the design. I built a plywood bike 2 years ago with LVL(laminated veneer lumber) for the center rib and 3/8" plywood for the skin and rear structure. Here is a link to a few pics.
http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365&highlight=wood