SWB0 The Flying Dutchman

[BartRidesEternal]

We were all suspended seeing that video I imagine

This gives me a feel like I want to build a wooden bike. Away with #steelisreal..... what about #woodisgood?!


Love the curves and the dimples there. Every step and picture is a treat.
A true 'dynamic furniture' builder

Allright, I'll do me best to stop with the dry jokes..... dry as wood...

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I'm doing what I like to call Guessineering. I'm not worried about breaking them, right now I'm more worried that I'm not going to get enough flex out of this setup. They don't flex nearly as much as I was envisioning.

That is what I was getting at. My thought was to make a rough test set up to see what it would take to get the amount of flex that you're looking for. That way if you go to the point of breaking it, you wouldn't loose the beautiful work that you have already done.

I have no doubt that you are fully competent to pull this off without any outside guidance though! I'm just having fun building it in my head along the way. lol Keep it up!

 

[VelolFellow]

This looks a lot like the work coach builders used to do back in the horse and buggy days.

 

[bikewhorder]

I'm coming to the sad realization that I miscalculated the strength of the wood. Without dramatically changing the whole desig which I don't want to do, I'm basically not going to get the suspension effect that I was after on this build. I was thinking I could remove material to get the amount flex I was after but the problem is, while the wood doesn't want to bend it does seem to easily twist which is obviously not a desirable characteristic. If I make it flexy it will also be super wonkie side to side. I thought about adding pivots and springs but that's not the clean look I was going for. I'm sure the wood will provide plenty of vibration dampening, but that's going to be about it.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Carbon or fiberglass “core” to the pieces?

Split them, router a recess, fill with the core material, rebond the halves?

 

[Captain Awesome]

Just throwing ideas at the wall

 

[bikewhorder]

Just throwing ideas at the wall

Yeah, I've been thinking about it, but.
the problem is with a typical suspension you have rigid parts with pivots and springs of some sort and the motion is controlled. When
the members of the frame are designed to also be the suspension It's difficult to control the motion. It's hard to make something that's flexible enough in one direction, but rigid in another. The wood is strong enough that you could totally make a full suspension bike out of it, but you would have to do it in a more conventional fashion. I thought I could use the springiness of the wood to create the suspension but it's not that simple. I've made my peace with it.It will be much simpler Without all the pivots and just as beautiful, I just won't have much travel. A few millimeters.