Hi all! I have been lurking for a while, but finally decided to start a build after getting inspired by @ArborVelo blog on building a wooden bike.
I have been wanting to build my own frame for a while, but I’m a bit intimidated by welding and my dad is a woodworker and timber framer so I thought it would be cool to work on a project with him that combines our interests. I looked around at the existing wooden bike designs and Renovo cycles’ bike design looks both beautiful and feasible without having to do a lot of intricate router work.
I followed @Daniel_Y youtube tutorial on CAD’ing a mountain bike to get some practice with CAD and have been working on a design for the frame. I am basing the geo somewhat on a Spot Rocker because it seems like a quick single-speed xc bike (although my frame will likely be quite a bit heavier lol).
This is what I have so far. Just like the Renovo frame, the main structure will be made from a few solid blocks of wood at the triangle points, and bent strips of wood for the “tubes”. This will then get covered with some “show” wood on the sides which will wrap around the headtube and will be carved down to more of a tube-like shape. I plan on making the bent pieces by bending thin pieces and laminating them together, as opposed to what Renovo does with their “Cold-Bend” “wood”.
Right now I am having a hard time figuring out what dropouts to use. I am considering using Paragon’s conventional sliding dropouts so I don’t have to design brake mounts, but I need a way to mount them to the stays. I might just modify the dropout in CAD to extend the frame mounting plate to be long enough to get some bolts through the chain stays and seat stays.
This weekend I will try to do a test of how tight I can bend the strips to check if my frame design is feasible.
I think this is a really cool project too. Bikes made of unconventional materials are always fun to see, but I also think the term “build log” for a wooden bike is absolutely hilarious!
I think I’m going to use the paragon sliding inserts (in-case I want to single speed it), and I modified the design of the dropout to allow me to put a few bolts through the wood and the dropout. I designed it so that it can be cut out of 3/8” sheet aluminum and I think I will just pay a service like sendcutsend to cut out a few of them (only like $80 for 4 of them) and then just drill and tap the adjustment hole myself and buy a few m5 screws for the adjusters and a few m8 screws for holding the inserts in place.
I still need to figure out the seat tube. I currently have the tube as a 31.6 mm tube in the model for dropper compatibility, but I’m thinking it should be carbon so that it’s light and bonds well with the epoxy and I can’t find any 31.6 mm inner diameter carbon tubes. (although I haven’t looked that hard). I know that there are 27.2 mm ID carbon tubes from RockWest composites, and there are some droppers that are that size, but both are quite expensive.
I have found a few 31.75 mm (1 and 1/4 in) carbon tubes for cheaper, but I am not sure if that extra 0.1 mm will affect my ability to get a good clamp on the seatpost. My thought is if I make the relief slot large enough I should be able to clamp it and the change in diameter will only be 0.4% which feels like it should work (although I have never worked with carbon before).
Also tested bending some wood without a form, and I think I will need to use 1/8” strips glued together to be able to bend the radius by the headtube. Hopefully this week I will have some time to start making the forms for the front triangle inner frame.
dammit
Chapeau