This year we’ve seen bikes that have simulated wood grain and even bikes made of bamboo in a variety of form factors. Now words comes that a couple of manufacturers are working with plywood, a very odd choice for frame building at first thought, but isn’t plywood technically a composite material?
Well, it isn’t carbon fiber but plywood has advantages in that it is strong, can be made into shapes that typical wood boards can’t, and it has a springiness as well. Polish designer Stanislaw Poloski has created a one-of-a-kind bike called the Bonobo, which is made of curved, laminated layers of plywood. The bike, which weighs about 16 kilograms, is fitted with a single-speed drivetrain and disc brakes.
The bike isn’t the first take the idea of plywood either, and James Thomas, writing at Bicycledesign.net, notes that he too created a plywood concept design back in 2008. Could Poloski have copied Thomas’ designs? We don’t know, but from a first glance the designs are similar.
The question of course is whether this could actually go anywhere. The bike, at least as Polski built it, isn’t lightweight or cheap. It has a cool factor, but that’s probably not enough to get it on the fast track to mass riders.
Bonobo Plywood Bicycle Official Website
[Via Bicycledesign.net: Two very similar plywood bike concepts]