Wooden bike by Yojiro Oshima

Yojiro-Oshima-wood-bike-1Yojiro Oshima is a student in the Craft & Industrial Design Department at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. For his final project before graduation, he designed and made a wooden bike (complete with wooden wheels, handlebars, and saddle). His goal with the design was to incorporate the benefits of a beam frame and a standard frame, so the short cantilevered seat beam was designed to “reduce large impacts” while the “seat stay and the chain stay remain as usual to assure the stiffness.”

In addition to the beautifully crafted frame, Yojiro sculpted a wooden handlebar with integrated armrests and created “baton wheels” with an arc between the spokes and rim to soften the ride.

It is a beautiful prototype, and I would love to see a video of it completely built and actually ridden.  For now though, see additional still pictures of the bike below.

Yojiro-Oshima-wood-bike-2

Yojiro-Oshima-wood-bike-handlebar

Yojiro-Oshima-wood-bike-frame-detail


Comments

37 responses to “Wooden bike by Yojiro Oshima”

  1. Nick F. Avatar

    This is spectacular.

  2. Androo Avatar
    Androo

    I wonder how it was made. Is it hollow? CNC-machined in two parts and bonded?

    It’s absolutely gorgeous, in any case. I just wonder if it’s any good.

  3. Tirapop Avatar
    Tirapop

    Where did you come across those pics?

    1. James Thomas Avatar

      Yojiro sent them to me. Submitted work directly from designers is always welcome here.

  4. pierre fabre Avatar
    pierre fabre

    Yojiro managed to keep an elegant and dynamic look, which is amazing when using wood. Any idea of the weight?

  5. Yojiro Oshima Avatar
    Yojiro Oshima

    Thank you for your comments.
    This proposal is about the shape of the frame and the handle mainly which doesn’t concern what material it’s made out of. The maximum comfort can be put into practice by wood.

    It is all hand made. The down tube and seat tube are hollowed with plenty of thickness left not to disturb the surface when planed too much. As a result, it weights about 14kg in total. The thickness is uncertain though, I guess it’s about 6-12mm. It is bonded the half and half into one.

    1. Tirapop Avatar
      Tirapop

      Beautiful bicycle! We would love to see more pictures, especially construction to see how this was done.

  6. […] Bicycling being one of the greenest ways to commute, we have always encouraged our readers to ditch their cars and make use of pedal-power, especially for short distance commutes. Apart from saving a lot of fuel, bicycling also helps you maintain a healthy lifestyle. While bicycles are definitely green on their own, a Japanese designer named Yojiro Oshima is trying to even better the eco credentials of bicycle with the prototype Wooden Bicycle. […]

  7. Bubba Nicholson Avatar

    The wheels are made similarly to those of ancient Egyptian design, except spokes were increased to six from four.

  8. Sprockets Avatar
    Sprockets

    As this concept is essentially a sculpture I can understand some of the shortcomings. That aside though this design is that of a time trial bike that no one is going to ride for comfort riding. And the conflicting points of the comfort of wood and the desire to have short chainstay/seatstay members for increased stiffness is confusing — more fleixble chainstays will make for a more comfortable ride. On top of this there is no front brake, no brake levers, no front derailleur (but there is an installed shifter), no cable routing, and the seat is pitching far too low. The trail on the fork is completely inappropriate for the frame though it would be at home a comfort cruiser. Beautiful, well-made, and crafted with love and passion, but very much lacking functional considerations. An no one wants a 14kg TT bike.

  9. […] fotos são do site BicycleDesign.net e mostram essa incrível bike feita com um design incrível, com curvas feitas para absorver o […]

  10. […] Fonte: BicycleDesign.net […]

  11. […] Designer Yojiro Oshima is a student in the Craft & Industrial Design Department at Musashino Art University in Tokyo […]

  12. Nuneh Avatar
    Nuneh

    Can I have one?

  13. […] Wood Bike by Yojiro Oshima :: via Bicycle Design […]

  14. Jake Avatar
    Jake

    The pedal spoils the whole look.

  15. […] Full article here: bicycledesign.net […]

  16. EurApean Avatar
    EurApean

    Aw this is amazing !

  17. […] ekologický dopravní prostředek z přírodního materiálu vytvořil talentovaný designér Yojiro Oshima. Každá klíčová součást kola spoléhá výhradně na dřevo. Rám i sedadlo tak působí […]

  18. […] Via: Bicycle Design […]

  19. […] Le vélo étant l’un des moyens les plus écologiques de se déplacer, nous avons toujours encouragé nos lecteurs à abandonner leurs voitures et de faire usage d’un vélo, en particulier pour les déplacements de courte distance. Mis à part économiser beaucoup de carburant, le vélo vous aide également à maintenir un mode de vie sain. Alors que les vélos sont clairement écologiques de leur propre chef, un designer japonais du nom de Yojiro Oshima tente d’améliorer encore les pouvoirs « éco » du vélo avec le Wooden Bicycle. […]

  20. Christophe Avatar

    Houlala ! Magnifique !

  21. jr stoner Avatar
    jr stoner

    The wheels remind me of the Egyptian chariot wheels featured recently on PBS. They were also contrcuted in several parts, with a hub added at the center and bound together with a rim that held them in compression.

    see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/pharaoh-chariot.html

  22. Alexavier Zee Avatar
    Alexavier Zee

    Hi Yojiro Oshima, Is it for sale? U can reach me at: toyzfusion@hotmail.com. Thank you.

  23. […] analysis, but a large number of the posts on that site feature bikes made of wood (such as this one and this […]

  24. Bernardo Avatar

    Amazing work and design. Does the seat really holds the weight? Incredible!

  25. Morpheous Avatar
    Morpheous

    Those forearm rests make so much sense integrated int the bars. NIce touch.

  26. […] analysis, but a large number of the posts on that site feature bikes made of wood (such as this one and this […]

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