Hardwood Single Speed

Looks great, classic bend drops though I beg you....

Did you brand it in the end?

No, it's a waterslide decal printed on an inkjet printer which then went clear with the varnish

This is one of my favourite project threads. It looks better than I thought it 'wood' ;)

If you'd described it to me, I would have thought it would look gash.

But it really is increadibley impressive, and looks beautiful. Well done.

Marvellous! Looks awesome....jealous.

gave me wood

Bravo. It's all good but I particularly like the shape and finish of the seat stays.

I guess debate/discussion about components still has a lot of legs. Can I just pitch in with a suggestion for gum wall tyres to set off the central, lighter strip of wood?

get some good photo's in the sunshine to show off the lovely colour of the wood / varnish

My thinking was to leave all the components completely plain and black to show off the frame. They were also all very cheap off classifieds and when I got them for the build I didn't know how it would turn out so didn't seem worth wasting money on it.

I think the chunky carbon forks work well to match the rear triangle and balance the chunky frame tubes so they're a keeper for me. But now I think it could look really nice with silver wheels, stem, seatpost, bars. With a Brooks saddle and leather/ cork bar tape and I do think that gumwall tyres are a good shout.

It's going to stay in it's current guise in the near future as I don't have the money to start chopping and changing components. But it may have a face lift further down the line.

I'm glad you opted against the gold chain - it would have tipped the project into golf club bar territory. Amazing work!

Best to keep it plane.

Yew wood say that...

Find it hard to beleaf that people walnut stop making such terrible pines....

Are you trying to cypress free speech?

You lot should be ash-amed.

Amazing work .. finished frame looks fantastic

Yew lot think this is all a j'oak and are just Teaking the Hickory. But I Walnut let Alder wood based Pines derail this thread and am determined to get everyone to Cedar point in wooden bikes.

How about carving a wood Hed 3?

or a wood disc? That should be possible non??

Inspirational stuff Linc.

this is incredible; I was thinking of making one from bamboo, but this looks much much nicer...

Took some better photos in the sun this weekend. Unfortunately couldn't take it out for a spin as there are still some minor tweaks.
Plenty of high res photos on my website.
http://ligneusbikes.wordpress.com/hardwood-single-speed/photos/

Did some jumping around on the pedals to do some very crude strength/ stiffness checks. Will report back when I hit the streets on it (hopefully not literally).

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Looks great!! See you stuck with the gold chain ;) Also I would have swapped the levers/cabling, but I gather you brits like to have the front brake in the right hand....crazy.

this is incredible; I was thinking of making one from bamboo, but this looks much much nicer...

I think it looks nicer too. There are very few good looking bamboo bike home builds from what i've seen. As sustainable as it might be I hate the hemp twine joints that everyone seems to use on the bamboo joints. Looks like a kids design technology project. There are some lovely carbon jointed frames though.

I thought about a bamboo bike myself and did plenty of research before I decided on this one but using hardwood is a hell of a lot more labour intensive as it takes a long time laminating and shaping the frame by hand where as with the bamboo the tubes are already formed for you.

See you stuck with the gold chain.
Yes, the chain was sat there and I really wanted to get the bike built up! The chain does kind of match the central maple layer and I suspect it might not look bad when it loses its initial shine.

Still on the fence about it though.

Also I would have swapped the levers/cabling, but I gather you brits like to have the front brake in the right hand....crazy.

Didn't know anyone else did it differently!