Wooden Cargo Bicycle

nearlycomplete

This is a cargo bicycle made almost completely out of wood. [Niels] and three of his classmates built it at Wico Campus Tio, a science and technology school in Dorpsstraat, Belgium. There’s a lot to be impressed by in this build. Sure, the guys concede that not everything is wood. They used metal screws as well as hubs, a crank shaft, and gears from a bicycle (not seen in this image). But everything else was made from Beech or Padouk wood. This includes the leaf springs that help cushion the cargo box from the bumps in the road.

The box itself acts as the handlebars. You can see the bracket which holds one end of a dowel spanning the left side of the box. This image was taken before the seat and cranks were added, but once they’re in place the front axle will turn along with the box for steering.

You can get a good look at the finished bike in the video after the break. You’ll also find a link to the Power Point slides there. Since that presentation is in Dutch we translated the text and pasted it below.

download the power point presentation: 15 slides in Dutch

Power Point translated by Google:

The Bakfiets

Wood Award 2012-2013

The idea

    • The idea came from the bike to another idea to an old moped or scooter again wood to build. This would cost too much time to go and then said someone from our group: ‘z illing not we build bike? First, it would be a recumbent but this was a little too simple so we went for the challenge to a tricycle, almost entirely of wood to build.

The idea

accessories

    • The wheels: These we entirely from wood, only the wooden rim, we work a metal hub of a bicycle wheel original.
    • The crankshaft: The crankshaft is milled in the frame and then we work a crankshaft that we have cut from an old bike in our wood.

accessories

    • The box: This is a simple style and line construction with panels in a panel groove. The panel gets a groove depth of 10mm. The panels are subsequently glued false styles for a better view.
    • The springs: The springs we himself by beech slats of 7 millimeters thick on each gelijmt make it a leaf spring 50 millimeters thick will form. The leaf springs are 80 millimeters wide.

Woods

  • Steamed beech
  • Padouk

The design

Required dimensions

    • Seat tube length: 0.68 cm
    • Seat tube angle: 66-70 degrees
    • Inner diameter bicycle rim

The rim word made ​​up of 4 different segments. These are joined gedreveld, and around each segment become a groove machined where the outer ring of a real bike rim perfect size safes.

The spokes

  • First we make wooden slats 21x21mm
  • It become a groove 7mm wide and 3mm deep milled
  • Then there are small slats in paddouk glued to detail
  • When the glue has dried, the spokes around sanded

Hub

  • There will be a bicycle hub in a block glued
  • This block is then in our hub hub glued
  • Around this hub will the rest of the wheel made.

The tray

  • Domino dowels as connection,
  • In the corners on one side, we have the styles, but 40mm wide so that it is made ​​with the thickness of the uprights to which they are nevertheless continue to 60mm,
  • The stuurbar is screwed to the container,

Leaf springs

Chassis

Seat tube construction

  • Sawn from beams with bandsaw.
  • Put rampa fixed with nuts and bolts.
  • 3 parts come with a pen paddouck.
  • Block seatpost is glued and screwed.

10 thoughts on “Wooden Cargo Bicycle

  1. There are something like 500 Dorpsstraaten in Belgium, WiCo is in Overpelt.

    The idea
    The idea to build a cargo bicycle developed from another idea, to rebuild an old moped or scooter from wood. This would take too much time. Someone from our group mentioned: ’Why don’t we build a bike?’ First, it would be a recumbent bicycle but this was a little bit too simple so we went for the challenge to build a tricycle, almost entirely out of wood.

    Elements
    The wheels:
    We craft these entirely from wood. We work an original metal hub from a bicycle into the wooden rim.

    The crankshaft:
    The crankshaft is milled out in the frame and then we place a crankshaft that we have cut from an old bike in our wooden frame.

    The box:
    This is a simple post and line construction with panels in a groove. The groove depth gets a depth of 10mm. Fake posts are subsequently glued on the panels for a better look.

    The springs:
    We make the springs ourselves using beech slats of 7 millimeters thick glued on top of eachother to make them into a leaf spring 50 millimeters thick. The leaf springs are 80 millimeters wide.

    Wood types
    Steamed beech
    Padouk

    Required dimensions
    Seat tube length: 0.68 cm
    Seat tube angle: 66-70 degrees
    Inner diameter bicycle rim

    The rim is made ​​up of 4 different segments. These are doweled together, and around each segment a groove is machined to perfectly fit the outer ring of a real bike rim.

    The spokes
    First we make wooden slats 21x21mm
    We mill a 7mm wide and 3mm deep groove in each face
    Then small slats of paddouk are glued in these grooves to detail
    When the glue has dried, the spokes are sanded cylindrical

    Hub
    A bicycle hub is glued in a block
    This block is then glued in our wooden hub
    The rest of the wheel will be built around this wooden hub.

    The container
    Domino dowels as connection,
    In the corners we have reduced the size of the posts to 40mm wide. Toghether with the thickness of the uprights to which they are connected they still measure 60mm,
    The handlebar is screwed to the container

    Seat tube construction
    Sawn from beams with bandsaw.
    Fixed with rampa nuts and bolts.
    3 parts joined by a Padouk pen.
    Block for the seatpost is glued and screwed.

  2. I’m sure the craftmanship is excellent, and they spent a lot of time on it. But it’s awkward, heavy and ugly … that’s all I can think of. I certainly don’t have the skill to build something like that, so I should just keep my thoughts to myself … oh well.

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