SWB0 The Flying Dutchman

[bikewhorder]

It's starting to look like something but I have such a long way to go.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

That's going to be one incredible bike when it's done. It absolutely blows my mind how you're bending and shaping that wood into such graceful curves! Do you have to soak the wood in anything before you bend it, or is the wood a more flexible type when the pieces are cut so thin? I've only ever seen wood-bending used to make antique airplane wings, but as I recall, they only use one thin layer of wood that's been soaked in water, and then it retains whatever form it's been bent to as it dries.

 

[bikewhorder]

That's going to be one incredible bike when it's done. It absolutely blows my mind how you're bending and shaping that wood into such graceful curves! Do you have to soak the wood in anything before you bend it, or is the wood a more flexible type when the pieces are cut so thin? I've only ever seen wood-bending used to make antique airplane wings, but as I recall, they only use one thin layer of wood that's been soaked in water, and then it retains whatever form it's been bent to as it dries.

In my previous attempts I used steam bending to bend slightly thicker pieces of wood. The steam heats up the lignon in the wood and you can actually feel it "give" when you bend it around the form and then when it cools it holds its shape more or less. For this build, I'm just using super thin layers and I've eliminated any sharp bends from the design. This is a video from five years ago showing the process. You have to move fairly fast once it cools off, it's not bending anymore.

 

[bikewhorder]

I got the second half of my "top tube" clamped up last night. I think i've also finally decided on how i'm going to do the dropouts which has been one of the biggest Design challenges of this project. Originally the top was fixed and the bottom one pivoted but I realized that wasn't really going to work so I'm going to try to make them so that they can pivot top and bottom to allow for maximum movement for the suspension. The whole reason for using wood on this build is to take advantage of its flexibility to create a suspension system. I'm a little worried that my parts are too strong to bend but I figure I can just sculpt away material like a termite after it's all built until I get the desired amount of flex from the wood. It looks fairly simple from the side view but there's quite a bit going on with the pivots and bushings and offsets to clear the hubs and cog et cetera. They need to be super rugged and not allow the wheels to shift from side to side. Moving parts are always difficult. I'm doing a lot of "guessing" as far as the structure. The problem with wood is you can't cut it and reweld it like you can with steel. You kind of have to get it right on the first try. It's going to be a challenge for sure.

 

[bikewhorder]

As mentioned previously I have been struggling a little bit with the engineering side of this build, but luckily there's youtube to the rescue. This video explains, in layman's terms, how to overcome the challenges I'm dealing with in securing the wheels to the frame and allowing the dropouts to pivot. I wasn't quite sure how to articulate it but this guy spells it out very clearly.